Stupid Little Tree
by melancholic-medicine
Summary: Maybe the part of the tree that had been responsible for the destruction of Palmacosta was still out there... and what if it wanted some revenge? LloydxSheena
1. Exploding Seals and Collasping Heroes

Guys, I don't own ToS, but I think it rocks! XD

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A breeze swept through the entire land, carrying a scent of change. People everywhere, doing anything, all felt a shiver go down their spines. No matter who they were, male or female, human, elf or both, Sylvarantian or Tethe'allan, they all felt it. And they all felt a weird thought run through their heads, even though they had no idea what it meant.

They'd done it. Finally, they'd done it.

None of them could believe quite how it happened. Mind you, not many even knew what had happened.

The Giant Kharlan Tree was truly reborn, in all its splendour. It would restore the mana, and link the two worlds of Tethe'alla and Slyvarant once again. This is what had been strived for by a small group for the best part of a year.

Seven people watched it from the foot of the ruined Tower of Salvation as the Great Seed floated from the sky. Wordlessly, they all ran to where it was going to land, as fast as their legs could carry them. Well, apart from Genis, who looked and felt like his lungs were about to explode from a lot of running.

The kunoichi Sheena immediately took the lead. She wanted to get up to where Lloyd and Colette were first. Very badly. She was furious with Colette. _"That bitch! She did that on purpose! I knew she would do that!"_ Sheena sped along in jealous thought. None of the group had realized it, other than Lloyd and Zelos being suspicious of it, but she and Colette had never been friends. Through out the entire journey, since Sheena had joined, the pair had hated each other viciously. And it wasn't because Sheena had once tried to assassinate Colette. It was because of a certain male member of the group the pair liked.

Lloyd.

Despite low mana levels throughout the worlds, a lot of plants still blossomed. But they often lost their leaves and re-bloomed in an un-naturally fast cycle, nearly five times a year. It was one of those seasons, and Sheena found herself continually spitting out petals. They tasted horrible, and she could hear the others spitting out the leaves behind her.

The rest of the group struggled to keep up with the ninja. Zelos called to get her attention. "Hey, melon-chest! Slow down! Genis looks like he's about to have a heart attack!" Sheena turned her head to try and check on Genis, and immediately ran into a tree branch due to not looking where she was going. She fell over backwards, and the group stopped when they reached her. Genis collapsed beside her.

"Sorry, Genis. I was… just worried about Lloyd." Sheena admitted to her feet. Genis waved an arm tiredly in the air.

"I'm over here, not by your feet! But don't worry about it." Genis panted, as his older sister pulled him up onto her back. Raine groaned. She had more stamina than her brother, but, just the same as her little brother, had virtually no physical strength. Genis grinned. "Giddy up, horsy!" Raine growled, and then decided to 'accidentally' drop him, and then picked him up again. With that the majority of the group started off again, apart from Zelos and Sheena, who was still on the floor. Zelos extended his hand to Sheena to help her up.

"Now that's not like you to crash into a branch, even when you aren't looking where you're going. Or is the Famous Chesty Ninja of Mizuho losing her touch?" Zelos inquired rudely, with a grin across his face. Sheena pushed his hand away.

"Get off, Zelos. And are you still at it with that stupid nickname?" Sheena growled, staring embarrassedly at her chest. Zelos laughed heartily.

"Haha, I believe I touched a nerve! Now, I'm not winding you up as a joke." Zelos face straightened. Sheena blushed slightly. Nobody was exactly comfortable around the joker's serious face. Especially not Sheena. "Now, I know you were busy thinking about Lloyd. I've been in the love business for too long Sheena, so you can't fool me."

"WHAT?! What do you mean? You…" Sheena growled. She pulled out a seal and activated it in a puff of smoke. Almost instantly, several illusionary Sheena clones appeared. They all inhaled a deep breath of air, and began screaming different insults and lectures at him. Zelos blushed at the initial appearance of several Sheenas, even if they weren't real, and then cowered as each one started screaming at him. After getting over the initial shock, he grinned cheekily and poked one of the Sheenas in the breasts. They all blushed furiously, then disappeared in a puff of smoke, similar to how they had appeared. When the smoke cleared, all the clones had gone, apart from the Sheena that Zelos had touched. This was the real Sheena. She grabbed his hand tightly, so he couldn't free it. She then stuck a seal on his forehead.

"Lloyd thought this of this seal. It activates when the special word is said. And it doesn't need to be stuck on anything to activate." Sheena said, with a matter-of-fact tone. Zelos pulled it off his forehead with the hand Sheena had just let go off. He looked at it confusedly. Lloyd must have come up with it, because in his crude handwriting the word 'BOOM' was written across it.

"Boom?" Zelos read aloud. At that moment, the seal sparked, and a small explosion came from the seal. He fell over backwards, and his face was black from it.

"Haha. He invented it especially for such an occasion, because he knows how much you annoy me like that!" Sheena laughed. "Anyway, you wanted to ask me a question about Lloyd?"

"Would you care to tell me what you were talking about after that fight earlier?" Zelos asked, sitting up.

Sheena blushed, as she thought about what Lloyd had said to her about Colette a few hours previously.

"_Sheena, can I talk to you please? It's about Colette. I know you two don't particularly get along, but I think that's how you can help me." The group were trekking through Mithos' Castle, completely lost. Despite Raine's treating him, Kratos had opted to stay behind at Dirk's house ("LAZY OLD-TIMER!!!!" – Zelos), and without him, the group were very lost. Also, the angels that were constantly attacking weren't particularly helping._

"_Yeah, sure. Is this about how Colette's always following you around, or something?" Sheena correctly guessed, with a sour tone in her voice. Lloyd sighed. He opened his mouth to continue, but was interrupted when Regal discovered an angel was using him for target practice._

"_I don't like Colette in that kind of way." He made a love hearts with his hands to signify what he meant. Sheena nodded hopefully. "But she likes me like that." He violently tore his hands apart, as Sheena nodded, hopeful and enthusiastic. "She'll never leave me alone…" He sighed after a battle with the bow-and-arrow wielding angel. "She's always clung onto me like she can't survive with me."_

"_Why don't you tell her?" Zelos had eavesdropped on the conversation. "Hey Colette! Lloyd wants to tell you something!" He shouted, receiving a thump over his head from both Lloyd and Sheena. The blonde ran over._

"_Do you want something, Lloyd?" She chirped, always happy to try and prove herself better than Sheena. She shot a dark look at Sheena, before addressing Lloyd again. "I'm always happy to help you!" Zelos looked over and smirked. He was the only one who had truly realized Sheena and Colette were constantly bickering over Lloyd._

"_Err, nothing, Colette. Zelos misheard me, because I said Ozette." He quickly lied._

"_Oh." Colette walked away disappointed. Zelos stared curiously at Lloyd and Sheena for a moment, before moving on with the group. As he walked away, Lloyd made a brief hand gesture at Zelos, which caused Sheena to giggle. Lloyd meant then to ask Sheena another question, but Zelos had already realised someone had been rude behind his back (Genis nicknamed it Zelos' 'Paranoid Sense'). Zelos turned around, sighed, grabbed Sheena and Lloyd by their forearms and dragged them along._

"Zelos, curiosity killed the cat. Get lost." Sheena grumbled, before sprinting off, in hopes of trying to overtake the group. Zelos easily caught up with her.

"You're in love! You're in love! You're in love!" He taunted, before meeting a tree trunk head on. Sheena made no hesitations about not stopping to help him, instead just pushing him violently with her foot when he sat up.

When she caught up with the rest of the group, they were already with Lloyd and Colette. She sighed as she noticed Colette move closer to Lloyd as she arrived. She glanced over her shoulder to notice Zelos stumble over to the group, with several twigs decorating his long hair. She sighed, pulling him up as he tripped over a rock.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Zelos Wilder? You're like a drunken beast!" she groaned.

"Is that some lousy attempt at a pick-up line?" Zelos asked, his head dizzy. That was the last thing he knew, because Sheena promptly knocked him unconscious with a fist right in between his eyes. The group looked on, and all let out a huge sigh, knowing things would never change between Sheena and Zelos, no matter how much they wanted it to.

The location of the Giant Tree wasn't the grand one everybody had envisioned; it was a ruin, of which the majority of the structure from the Tower of Salvation had fallen. Well, maybe Raine had had an idea like an ancient, mysterious ruin, but she didn't want it, because then archaeologists and ruin-crazed nut-jobs would come and investigate it. Of course, she wouldn't be part of any expedition like that, because it could essentially harm the planet's life force.

Lloyd turned from the group to stare at the Tree, and sighed. Somehow, it didn't quite feel right. The Tree felt oddly empty. A strange feeling overcame Lloyd, and he rubbed his head in thought. Bu, he just eventually shrugged it off. The Tree had only just been reborn a quarter of an hour ago, so of course it wasn't going to be complete yet.

"So, everything's done now?" Raine asked. She turned to look at the Tree, and stared at it with glittering eyes, obviously in Ruin-Mode. "I wonder how it sustains itself? Does it use photosynthesis like other plants? This is simply amazing! I wonder… blah blah blah, yap yap blah, dibble dribble dribble…" The group quickly stopped paying attention to the Professor, like they had all eventually learnt to.

"To answer the Professor's original question, yes. Everything should be done now. We can truly celebrate!" Lloyd laughed, turning around to face the group again. His eyes met with Sheena's, and he blushed. He realized that now he could finally ask that burning question he had tried to ask Sheena while they were up on Derris-Kharlan. Or, at least, he could ask it later. When night fell, maybe.

The group sat down to think about how to celebrate. They had just saved the worlds, so was a mere party enough? Or maybe just a casual drink? What to do, what to do…

"A party?!" Zelos immediately jumped up, feeling completely better. He'd obviously been on the same wavelength as the group, despite his short bout of unconsciousness.

"How did you get up that quickly? Shouldn't you slow down?" Kratos asked confusedly. Zelos looked at the Seraph, and laughed.

"How? Well, when a party calls, the Mighty Zelos Wilder must answer, no matter what state he's in, where he is, or how far up a girl's skirt-" Zelos was cut off by a sharp blow to his head from Sheena.

"Enough with the perverted comments! Please!"

"O.K., no need to hit me. Again." Zelos flinched and hid behind Regal as Sheena cracked her knuckles, while Regal just stood there silently. After a while the tall man sighed.

"How about we have it at Altamira, then? I can have things organised quickly for a ball, if you want. Being the president of a highly efficient company does have it perks, you do know." He grinned to himself.

The Regal had joined in, Lloyd realized what he had started. The entire group were all going to want to go and have some kind of extravagant party, but they were all going to want to do different things. All Lloyd was going to suggest was that they have a meal where they all cook their favourite dish – apart from Raine, who still nobody trusted in the kitchen – and give it to everybody else. But it looked like that wasn't going to happen.

"Look, guys I don't want it big…" Lloyd began.

"At Altamira?! That's weak! Zelos laughed. "If you want it big, then I can get a Royal Ball organised!" Zelos poked his toungue out at Regal quickly, then began doing a weird little dance while throwing confetti in the air.

"I thought somebody took that weird confetti off him last week… Where the hell did he get it?" Presea mumbled to herself and Kratos.

"What, because you're the Chosen?! Well, I'm sorry I'm not as good as that!" Regal snapped.

"Oh course you aren't as good as me!" Zelos laughed airily.

"You know what I'm better at than you? Modesty!" Regal shouted back, almost completely out of character. The two immediately flared up into a fight. Raine, always being the peace-keeper, tried desperately to break them up by jumping in between them. However, having never experienced an argument with stronger-than-he-looks-even-though-he-looks-very-strong-already Regal, this proved harder than she initially thought.

Lloyd put his face into his hands, and stared at the floor, as warfare picked up all around him. It was hard to believe this group were struggling to bring peace, when they broke out into their huge group wide arguments. Such an argument had only happened several times before, the first one being after Lloyd had been framed of peeking on the girls in the Hot Springs, when that had been Zelos' fault. That had only been resolved when Zelos finally admitted his crime. He was beaten up shortly afterwards, by all the girls and Lloyd.

Sheena and Colette were having another one of their mysterious rows over 'Big Red' (Lloyd), and Genis was trying to ask Presea that if there was a party if she would go with him. This immediately caught Regal's attention, who walked away from Zelos and warned Genis not to jerk Presea around. Zelos, furious that he'd just been ignored, stormed over to Sheena to try and get some comfort, only to get her boot in his face. Kratos burst in, trying to protect Zelos. Also, by now, Presea had started trying to defend Genis while keeping her temper. Lloyd wouldn't have been surprised if he would have to stop the group strangling one another in a minute.

Nobody noticed Lloyd lose his balance suddenly. He quickly caught it. _"What was that about? I feel funny…" _He thought to himself. _"I think… I think I'm going…to collapse…"_ He took a step forward, and blanked out. He was only noticed when he fell on top of Sheena, knocking her over.

"Lloyd?!" Sheena yelped, as Kratos pulled his son off of the ninja. While she was worried, the temptation to shoot Colette a boastful look that Lloyd had fallen on her was unbearable. Colette poked her toungue out at her, before swiftly changing to a look of concern.

"Lloyd? Can you hear me?" Kratos panicked, placing a hand on his son's forehead. He had seen this condition before. The exact same thing happened when Mithos had spilt the worlds 400 years ago. By now, Raine had knelt down and snatched Lloyd from Kratos' grasp. She looked at him, and wondered if a healing spell would be the best course of action. She suddenly doubted that.

"Old-Timer? Do you know what's wrong with Lloyd?" Zelos asked, rubbing his sore face. It felt as though Sheena had kicked him with an anvil. Kratos just huffed.

"I don't know, but remaining here will likely result in our becoming of a monster attack, and unless you are willing to risk Lloyd like that, I suggest we find a town."

"I know this nice little town with pretty flowers in it…" A weary voice drifted up. The group looked down to see Lloyd opening his eyes. "And it has the nicest ice-cream. And a beach, and this place Zelos showed me where girls get changed. I told him it was wrong to look, but Zelos still took me to look. I shut my eyes…" He quickly lost consciousness again.

"What on earth was he on about there?" Genis laughed.

"From the description, the chances are he was talking about Altamira. Although, I don't think he was completely with us when he said it…" Presea sighed.

"Yeah…" Zelos cringed. _"Great, I'm busted. Sheena will probably figure out I took Lloyd to peek on her. Argh, stupid, half-conscious Lloyd!" _Sheena looked up at him in angry curiosity. _"Eep…"_

"Hmm, moving away from Zelos' worrying influences on Lloyd, we need to get him elsewhere, and quickly." Raine said.

"Yes, and quickly! I can hear footsteps. Big footsteps! They sound like an ogre is approaching!" Colette yelled.

"There is also the sound of flapping wings. I would assume that our ogre is being accompanied by a dragon." Kratos sighed in despair. Both angels' enhanced senses of hearing were serving them well.

"But, we have no idea where anything is anymore!" Regal pointed out. Some of the group looked at him confusedly, but Presea turned to address the group.

"We all knew the geographical layout of Slyvarant and Tethe'alla well while they were separated. However, we are completely unaware of how the reunification has affected this."

"But, wouldn't they just be in the same place as they were 4000 years ago? Kratos, do you remember how the world was spread out all that time ago?" Genis asked. The group's hopes soared momentarily, until Kratos looked at the ground and shook his head.

"Too many towns have been born, and too many have disappeared during the time. I could not guarantee knowing where anything was. And that's a risk I'm not willing to take at this moment." Just at that moment, almost as if it had been cued, Exire roared into view over head.

The group turned around to see Sheena within a summoning circle with Maxwell. He huffed.

"What do you think I am, young lady? A taxi service? Does it say 'Taxi' on my forehead? Honestly! You're lucky you have Origin with you, or I'd give you such a wallop…" Sheena sighed and turned around. Maxwell drifted away on the wind and Sheena approached the group.

"Well, we know where Exire is. Anybody care to retreat to the half-elves? They'll welcome us!" The group thought for a while, reluctant to take Lloyd up there. After all, Exire was home to the half elves that had been rejected by the rest; they may still harbour feelings of great hatred towards humans. An ear-splitting roar from an approaching dragon soon pushed any doubts away.

Everybody quickly pulled their Rheirds from their wing packs, apart from Kratos, who opted for his angel wings. He scooped Lloyd up in his arms, and the group started their ascent towards Exire.

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1st Chapter finished! Whooooo! I feel like celebrating! XD

So what do you think? If you're going to review this, please point out any mistakes you see. I'm infamous for raking up weird typos and really stupid grammar errors towards the end of a document, which is a really annoying habit I can't seem to break Stupid lazy spell check… Anyway, chapter 2 is in progress, and I hope to get it up soon. Thank you for reading!

Oh yeah, just a little note, but, this is also my first entry EVER, so please be nice!


	2. Suspicious Half Elves and Brawling Girls

Guys, I don't own ToS, but I think it rocks! XD

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The group slowly approached Exire with no problems. Well, until Zelos got argumentative with a flock of birds he encountered. While Kratos flew on with determination, the group stayed behind to untangle Zelos from a flock of grumpy birds. 

As the landing sight for Exire loomed into view Kratos sped up slightly. As he landed, Raine caught up with him. She didn't really care about what had happened to Zelos. Kratos gave her a confused look.

"He started the argument with those birds. Besides I thought you might want some help, seeing as the Village Elder knows me and Genis…" Kratos nodded, and walked straight onto the Elder's house.

"I see…" The Elder turned his back on Kratos and Raine, and stared at the wall, as though asking it a question. He then sighed deeply. "If this boy really has done what you say, then that means we half elves have more hope for living…more normal lives. And besides, I couldn't resist a request from Virginia's daughter. I'll get someone to take him to a bed. Leave him there." The Elder pointed down towards his own bed. Kratos laid Lloyd upon it, and left, holding the door open for Raine. She hadn't expected Kratos to be so willing in leaving Lloyd behind, and thought about it. Then she realized that she, if it was Genis who needed help, probably would have not wanted to get in the half elves' way. She promptly followed Kratos out.

A little closer to the heart of the floating town, there was a loud uproar. Kratos and Raine watched it from a distance. Zelos was demanding Sheena give him a bath, because he was covered in bird poop. Sheena, like any other sane person, outright refused the stupid request. He had now started pestering the rest of the group to try and make Sheena 'see sense,' but the group were also trying their best to physically avoid him, as well as ignore him. Raine laughed.

"It's nice to see that even though we're all worried about Lloyd, this group can still be happy."

You call that happy?!" Kratos screed up his face trying to figure out what Raine had meant. "Last time I checked, happiness was…"

"You haven't been with this group for the majority of the journey. When they're all together with nothing to do, it's quite funny to watch what they get up to, especially if Lloyd's involved too. Although the time they convince Lloyd that the lake in Flanoir wasn't really cold and got him to jump in wearing his swimming trunks... Well, that was pushing it." Raine sighed. Kratos started to walk over to the group, and Raine followed.

"What happened?! Who exactly got Lloyd in those waters?!" Kratos was clearly unhappy about hearing this. Raine chuckled.

"He caught hypothermia. And so did Zelos and Genis, after Lloyd pulled them in for tricking him." Kratos slapped one of his hands to his forehead. How exactly had Lloyd turned out to be a gullible idiot? Oh well, it didn't matter. He had a good heart, and that was what really mattered.

When Raine and Kratos came into the group's view, Colette and Sheena both jumped at the couple. Realizing that they both wanted to ask about Lloyd first, the two broke out into a cat fight, scrabbling over the space in front of Raine and Kratos. The group were surprised at such a sudden action, especially from Colette. While they were busy brutally trying to maim each other, Zelos stepped forward and asked the burning question.

"Hey, err, where's Lloyd?"

Sheena and Colette immediately stopped upon hearing Zelos ask the question. Sheena let go of Colette's hair, and Colette took her hands off Sheena's face. They quickly stood up, and both started to go and jump on top of Zelos and start injuring him. But they quickly stopped in mid-air when Zelos' bird poop stench greeted them.

"Ewwww, go away Zelos, you stink!" The two girls whined in unison. Zelos, rather crestfallen that the two girls weren't going to bundle on top of him, turned away and sulked. Genis raised his Kendama, with an evil grin on his face.

"Here, Zelos. Let me help you… Tidal Wave!" Zelos took a swing at the child prodigy, but was too slow and was sent flying to the other side of Exire. Sheena sighed.

"Why didn't I think of that? Undine could have sent him soaring away!" Sheena kicked a pebble on the ground. Colette laughed cruelly at Sheena, but immediately wished she hadn't, as Sheena jumped on top of her with several seals in her hands.

"Lloyd is currently with the Elder of Exire. I suspect we'll probably be allowed to check on him later." Kratos informed the group, taking a step backwards as Sheena and Colette rolled past in front of him. He stared worriedly at the brawling girls, and then turned to the group. "Do they, umm, spar like that often?"

"I don't know. But we have always made sure that they sleep in separate rooms when we visited inns." Genis laughed. He started to think about, and realised that their hostilities, or at least the ones the group witnessed, towards each other had only really started after that night when Altessa had been injured. Had something happened during that night, when Lloyd, Colette, Sheena and Zelos had stayed behind in Flanoir?

Suddenly, a half elf approached the group with a now clean Zelos. The half elf cleared her throat roughly and put her hands on her hips.

"I believe he belongs to you?" She enquired, jerking her head towards Zelos, who looked rather wet, not to mention dizzy. The group nodded embarrassedly, and the half elf pushed Zelos over to them, where he fell into Kratos. Kratos pushed him off. "He very suddenly landed near the Elder's house, where I just finished examining your friend. He's ok. He's nearly exhausted his mana supply, and his body's recovering from a lot of stress. Mind you, from what I hear, it's highly unlikely that you would walk away from something like that ok…"

"I guess she has a point…" Genis sighed.

"But is it true, what I've heard? I always knew about Slyvarant and Tethe'alla from being a past member of the Desians…" She started. Kratos butted in.

"I knew I recognised you from somewhere! You're Ailexandra, aren't you? You used to be Pronyma's aide!"

"I prefer Ailex, but yes, that's right. But nobody here knows that!" Ailex said forcefully. Kratos quickly realized he'd said that quite loudly, and quickly murmured an apology. "I left the Desians when Pronyma tried to murder me for realizing all the damage I was causing. The Cruxis quickly just assumed me dead, but I survived and fled here. I spend my life quietly as the doctor here."

"Well, thank you for looking at Lloyd." Presea said quietly. She may have turned on the Desians, but Presea was very dubious of this woman. The rest of the group seemed to have no qualms about her though. This worried her.

"No problem. Some of my students are taking him to the inn here." Ailex smiled.

"There's an inn here?" Regal asked.

"Yes. When you guys started coming here, plans for visitors started. With Maxwell here looking after us, it was quickly built. By that summoner's pact, Maxwell gives us whatever we need." Ailex replied. Sheena growled.

"Hmm. You're very well-informed on us." Ailex blushed. She turned around quickly.

"The Elder saw you guys make the pact." She explained quickly. "Anyway, I think your friend should be at the inn by now. Why don't you go visit him?" She nervously giggled. In a quick subject change, she added on, "Umm, are those girls ok?" She pointed over to Sheena and Colette, who had worn each other out, and looked on the verge of collapsing.

"Don't worry about them. They just got wound up over the Beautiful Form of the Mighty Zelos!" Zelos smiled. With Sheena not present, Genis quickly stamped hard on Zelos foot. The pervert quickly grabbed Genis' hair. "Watch it you little brat!" He growled.

"Zelos. Put my little brother down, please…" Raine warned, cracking her knuckles. Zelos dropped Genis, grinned sheepishly, and ran off. Genis laughed at Zelos, and then received a swift blow over his head from Raine. "Don't annoy him!"

The group caught up with Zelos, with Kratos and Regal ending up carrying the worn out Colette and Sheena. The group headed toward the tower in Exire. A crude sign reading 'Inn' was hung over the door. The group had been dubious of such an isolated place having an Inn that was unlikely to be used any time soon, but they were slightly relieved to see that it only had two rooms, one occupied by Lloyd. The group walked in to see if he was ok. Lloyd was busy snoring blissfully.

"He looks so peaceful..." Sheena and Colette sighed, which both sparked evil looks. Kratos and Regal put the girls down, and felt tempted to tie them up. Raine quickly realized what they were thinking, and gave a sour disapproving look.

"I know, let's draw on Lloyd's face while he's asleep!" Genis yelled, pulling a crayon he kept spare in his pocket out. Zelos laughed as well, pulling out a some make-up he'd stolen off of Raine out. Genis thought about it for a moment, then stuffed his crayon back in his pocket and snatched some lipstick from Zelos' hand, not realizing it was his sister's. She quickly knocked their heads together, snatching her make-up away.

Kratos watched the group for a second. Having not been with since the firing of the Mana Cannon, he had never really seen what Lloyd's friends were like. Kratos could only come to the conclusion that they were a mix-and-match group, to say the least.

The group had al fallen into separate conversation, apart from Colette and Sheena, who appeared to be having a staring contest, when Lloyd suddenly grunted loudly. They all turned around, but Lloyd only started snoring louder. Genis walked over and pinched his nose. Lloyd squirmed for a bit, but when Genis let go, Lloyd immediately stopped snoring. The group returned to their normal conversation.

"Aww man, I was really looking forward to partying tonight." Zelos moaned. "You're a really party pooper, you know that Lloyd?" Zelos threw his boot at Lloyd. The sleeping boy winced.

"Zelos!" The room shouted.

"What? I was only trying to wake him up so we could have a party..." Zelos whined.

"You heard what Ailex said. Lloyd's body is recovering from a great deal of stress." Colette said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"Not to mention a huge mana loss. Do you know how tiring it is using a lot of mana in one burst?" Sheena asked loudly, recalling her 'impression' of the Mana Cannon. The two had taken their battle to a boasting contest, and it looked as though Sheena had won that round, because Colette crossed her arms and huffed.

"Were you two listening to Ailex while she was explaining Lloyd's condition? You looked so busy...sparring" Kratos struggled on the last word. The entire group were confused about Colette and Sheena's weird behaviour. It was very uncharacteristic of the both of them (Colette more than Sheena though), and made the group wonder if they had some weird mana poisoning or something.

"What's happening between me and Colette is staying between me and Colette!" Sheena snapped. The two immediately stormed out of the room, using separate doors and slamming them behind them. Zelos laughed.

"Don't worry. As the love guru of the group. I've figured out what's wrong between the two of them." Zelos smiled slyly. The group looked at Zelos with interest. "Oh, let's all only pay attention when Zelos has some gossip we want, eh? Well, anyway, I'll tell you. They've both got their eyes on the same boy, and seeing as all this saving the world crap's finished, they're hoping he'll choose one of them. And my money's on Sheena, personally." Zelos said, jerking his head towards 'Sleeping Beauty' (as Genis had nicknamed Lloyd). The group stared at him in utter disbelief. Suddenly, Sheena burst in.

"I heard you guys, so there's no doubt that the blonde bitch heard you as well. If you're quite finished, I'm going to find where Mizuho is, and report back. I won't be making any efforts to see you later!" Sheena said, with a look of pure disgust on her face. Suddenly, Colette shouted through the door she was behind.

"That goes double for me!"

And with that, the sound of two Rheirds taking off could be heard. The group grimaced thinking about what they'd done

* * *

Oh dear, Colette and Sheena are more than a lttle grumpy! Looks like any chance of a party for the ToS Crew just flew out the window. I wonder how this gets solved? Stay tuned, or reading, or viewing, or whatever you like to do... 


	3. Reawaking Heroes and Little Phobias

Guys, I don't own ToS, but I think it rocks! XD

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A fortnight had passed, and Lloyd still hadn't woken up. The new world had been explored more now, so more locations were known. Due to this Kratos had taken his son back to Dirk's house, not wanting Lloyd to wake up in unfamiliar surroundings. He had also wanted to get away from all the bickering. 

Since Sheena and Colette had left, the group had grown more and more fidgety, until a round of the blame game kicked up. But the weirdest thing was that they were picking at random faults, rather than what had just happened. Kratos really didn't have the patience for it, and so he went to sleep outside.

Kratos was sat in Noishe's 'kennel,' keeping his old pet company. Watching Lloyd sleep had brought back worrying memories of Lloyd's childhood, and Kratos didn't want to remember them. It reminded him of the times he was sick, and running from the Desians became harder. When he had bad dreams, and especially when he had dreams about... Nahh, he wouldn't think about that.

Noishe winced loudly. Kratos opened his eyes. It was dark, and Kratos was on top of Noishe's front paws. Getting up quickly and murmuring an apology, Kratos headed indoors. There, he received a greeting he hadn't been expecting.

"Hi, Dad! How are you?" Lloyd said through mouthfuls of Dirk's famous dwarven pot luck surprise. Kratos stared in surprise at the swordsman. He thought Lloyd was still asleep, because he had predicted Lloyd to wake up the next day. Through a large mouthful, he managed, "Hey Dad…"

"Lloyd, I thought you were still…" Kratos was cut short as Lloyd started choking. Dirk gave him a hefty pat on the back, and Lloyd coughed up a key. Kratos looked on in dismay and confusion

"Ahh, that would be were I put the house key. Thanks Lloyd." Dirk grinned, and Kratos just stared in disbelief. The reaction was almost like this was a normal thing. Kratos just shook his head and sighed. Lloyd noticed Kratos' confusion.

"You never know what you'll get in dwarven pot luck surprise until you try it. You could find anything in it. That's the reason nobody in the group but Colette will try it." Lloyd looked at his feet in shame. Kratos just stared in disbelief. He let his son be left for fifteen years with a dwarf that fed him keys? So he thought Lloyd was dead, but that wasn't an excuse!

"Are you sure that's ok?"

"Yeah… Hey, talking about the group how is everybody?" Lloyd said cheerfully. Kratos bit his lip. "What? How much could happen in just a day?"

"What do you mean, 'a day'?" Kratos and Dirk asked in unison.

"I've only been asleep for a day, right...? Right..?" Lloyd began panicking. He had meant to ask Sheena something on the night of the Tree's rebirth. Something important. "Right?! Will someone tell me?!"

"Err… You've been in a coma for a fortnight, Lloyd. You used a lot of mana doing what you did. And the only way it was going to get" Kratos bit his lip, unable to predict his son's reaction. It was a very odd thing to be told, indeed. Lloyd jumped out of his chair and ran out of the door, to try and find Sheena, or at least Zelos. Well, he found Zelos.

While running around in his underwear.

Zelos had just come within view of Dirk's house. Not only had he come to look for Kratos, but he wanted to see if his best friend was conscious again. He wasn't quite expecting Lloyd to come stumbling around the corner in his underpants and a t-shirt.

"Umm, Lloyd?!" Zelos muttered, before Lloyd's knees buckled. Having not moved much for the past two weeks, his legs weren't quite ready for him to suddenly start running. Lloyd looked up at Zelos, while Zelos stared back horrified. Lloyd shot him a confused look, and then looked at what he was wearing. He immediately pulled away.

"Oh, err, hi… How…how are you today, Zelos?" Lloyd's attempt to avoid Zelos' frightened gaze was rapidly failing. Zelos snatched hold of Lloyd's ear and dragged him towards Dirk's House.

"I thought I was weird, but at least I don't run around in my underwear…" Zelos sighed disapprovingly.

"What about when you trying to play that trick on Sheena while we were in Triet? The villagers nearly had whatever would inflict harm on you ready. Mind you, I still think the women there liked your pink heart patterned underpants and bunny slippers…" Lloyd sniggered. Zelos twisted Lloyd's ear around. "Hey, that hurts!" Lloyd whined. Zelos ignored him, and let his thoughts fall on what had happened that night, only about a month ago. Damn that Sheena for chasing him out the inn. She could have just torn his clothes off and… Hey, good idea!

"Zelos, let go of my son. And why have you got that ridiculous look on your face?" Kratos was stood a few feet. Zelos snapped out of his most likely x-rated daydream and dropped Lloyd with a thud.

"Oh, hehe. Hey Old timer! Hehe, err... I was trying to teach him how to grab and drag someone by the ear properly?" Zelos had always been very good at lying, but something about Kratos ruined his confidence. Maybe because he was tall. Or that he was 4000+ years old, and could probably maim Zelos within a second.

"Yes, and I'll believe that when you admit you have Gynophobia…" Kratos replied sarcastically, pulling his son to his feet. Lloyd tenderly rubbed his ear before shooting Zelos a sour look. Kratos pushed him towards the house. "Just go and have a bath or something. I'll sort out Zelos." Kratos muttered the last bit quietly so only Zelos would hear, and cracked his knuckles.

"Whoa, slow down there."

"I'm kidding." Kratos repiled, laughing quietly. He watch Lloyd go into the house and waited a couple of seconds before turning around to Zelos.

"Oh, ok then. What does 'gynophobia' mean?" Zelos questioned.

"It's a fear of women. I thought it was the most unlikely for you and your…" Kratos struggled for a word.

"Hunnies?" Zelos grinned, and started of towards the house. Kratos tripped him up spitefully.

"I was actually thinking of something along the lines of 'hobbies' or 'pastimes' idiot. Look, I need to talk to you about phobias, actually. And I'd like to talk about it now, without Lloyd."

"What?" Zelos' eyes brightened. "You're not going to tell me Mr. World-Saviour has a phobia of something, are you? You see, that's totally unlike me, because I'm not afraid of anything." Kratos just stared back blankly.

"BOO!" Kratos screamed. Zelos squealed like a little girl, and jumped feet.

"That wasn't funny old-timer. Besides, you made me jump. That doesn't mean I have a phobia or anything." Zelos' voice sounded like that of a sulking five year-old.

"No, I just wanted to see your face." Kratos laughed. "Anyway, about phobias. You're Lloyd's best friend, and then Sheena after you. Have you noticed anything weird about Lloyd when fighting a certain monster, or has Sheena ever said anything to you about Lloyd and a certain monster?"

"No. But then, I do really tend to watch for Sheena in fights more than I do Lloyd…" Zelos replied, his face turning slightly red and nodding slightly. Kratos smacked him over the head.

"Can you not think about Sheena's breasts for more than two seconds? Look, is Lloyd hesitant when spiders or spider-like creatures are on the battlefield or not?" Kratos' patience was rapidly running out. "Give me a straight yes or no before I really smack you over the head."

"No way?! Spiders? Lloyd's afraid of spiders?! I personally didn't notice. But spiders? That's so wimpy! How did he get it?"

"He was two when it developed. I know pretty much any child would hate spiders when they are two, but Lloyd hated them. It was scary. I don't feel like telling you the whole story. And I didn't really think it was a phobia until a chat with Dirk revealed otherwise." Kratos crossed his arms and walked into Dirk's house, leaving Zelos bewildered outside.

"Why did he ask me that? And why now, if he knew Lloyd had had it since age two? Wierdo…"

* * *

Chapter 3! Whoo! Sorry it's late...

I've had a review about this being classed as a Shelloyd but with no Shelloyd. It's coming, alright! Let me get some of the plot out of the way, and it'll come!

Again, if you reveiw this, please point out any spelling mistakes and such, because I'm good at creating those! That isn't a good thing, but there you go! Anyway, please review!


	4. Mountain Passes and Giant Monsters

I don't own Tos, but I do love it!

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Lloyd, Zelos and Kratos were exploring Meltokio, in the hopes of looking for a member of the group. Since Zelos had told Lloyd what had happened, Lloyd insisted that they go find everybody and bring the group back together, at least for one night while they celebrate. Zelos was thoroughly against the idea, because, even if they were drunken insults that had been thrown at him, some of the argument had been pretty ferocious and upsetting. All the group's dislikes had surfaced all at once, and Lloyd wasn't conscious to keep the peace However, Kratos wanted to leave for Derris Kharlan and would not do so until peace was restored in the group. 

Zelos had returned to Meltokio to prepare for his journey with Lloyd, such as saying good-bye to his hunnies and telling the King where he was going and such. He couldn't help but feel guilty, because although he and Zelos were best friends, he knew Sheena really would have wanted to go on this journey with Lloyd. That was where he got his brilliant idea from.

"_So, let me hear this once again. To show Mizuho we bear no grudge for them betraying us, we're going to ask them to send their newly appointed Chief off to go and make peace with Iselia? This idea seems a little far-fetched, Chosen… Err, Zelos."_

"_Yeah, why not? If we send a peace emissary from a village Iselia knows, they'll be able to trust it. And if we ask Mizuho to do this, it'll show we still trust them despite past happenings, see?" Zelos grinned. And if he could get Sheena to be in Iselia at the time Lloyd woke up, they could pick her up, and she would get to go on the trip._

"_I still don't get why you want Miss Fujibayashi to go. Although she has made friends with many people of Iselia, I heard that she and Sylvarant's Chosen, Miss Brunel, do not get along."_

"_And that's a problem because...? All we have to do is make sure they don't meet." Zelos shrugged._

"_Ever since their old mayor disappeared, I hear," The King said gravely, folding his arms. "That Miss Brunel's father was appointed the new Mayor."_

"_So? I could just get there ahead of Sheena and take Colette out somewhere. Out of Iselia, out of the problem, right?" The King growled to admit defeat. "Brilliant! We can send Sheena off at the end of the week. That would be the best time, right?"_

That hadn't gone as well as Zelos planned. Lloyd still wasn't awake, and Colette refused to even open the door to Zelos, for saying how she had less of a chance at Lloyd than Sheena.

Then, all hell broke loose when Sheena turned up.

Zelos grimaced at the thought of what actually happened. All he knew was that it was a good thing Raine happened to be passing through at the time. Well, at least Sheena didn't find out it was his idea to send her, otherwise he would have been assassinated with some scary Mizuho ninja technique by now. And Colette didn't know either; otherwise the Reforming Church of Martel would be breathing down his neck. Tethe'alla had given Phaedra all the power over the Church of Martel as it reformed. The King wanted no further embarressments with the Church after the whole incident with the Pope.

"So Zelos, are you sure Sheena and Presea are here? I can believe you about Presea, but I have my doubts about Sheena. I mean, she's probably returned to Mizuho as their Chief. Why would she be here helping Presea sell her charms?" Lloyd questioned, his doubts about Sheena deepening by the second.

"I told you, I found out that the King and Mizuho are trying to re-establish their relationship and bring peace about quicker. So, he asked if Mizuho could do a reconnaissance mission for any trouble makers for a while." Zelos informed. _And to make amends about the whole Iselia incident. _Zelos thought to himself.

"And Presea didn't get involved in the argument. It's likely she's still friends with everybody." Kratos added, nodding slightly. Lloyd sighed. He felt the Kratos was lying. She probably had been insulted during the fight, but not fought back. But she would forgive them because she was lonely and desperate for company. The thought saddened Lloyd, because nobody should have to be like that.

The trio had arrived at the level on which the Coliseum was, expecting Sheena and Presea to be selling charms out there. Indeed, they were right.

"Oh, hello Zelos…" Sheena growled. She was wearing a long dress with several patches over it, as a sort of disguise. She fitted in quite well with the Meltokio townsfolk. She lightened up slightly as she turned to Kratos. "Hello, Kratos!" Presea mumbled her greetings quietly, not completely thrilled having Zelos and Kratos present. Still, company would be company, and Sheena's stupid jokes were driving her nuts.

"Hey Presea. Hey Sheena." Lloyd greeted. Having been stood behind Zelos and Kratos, the two girls had not noticed him. Upon seeing him, they both jumped up and hugged him. Lloyd, still not quite used to being back on his legs yet, was completely knocked over. He struggled under the combine weight of the girls. It was then that Lloyd came up with a theory for all the annoying secrecy about girls and how much they weighed.

"Lloyd!" Both girls squealed in unison. Lloyd hastily pushed them off quickly to try and avert causing a scene.

"Hey, how are you two?" Lloyd asked weakly. Presea had head-butted him in the stomach, and he was rather winded. But then again, he was more worried about where he though Sheena had put her hand a second ago…

"Lloyd, you are ok?" Presea gave Lloyd a quick look over, and then jumped excitedly. "Look at me! I'm regaining myself!" She squealed. Lloyd gave her a pat on the shoulder and nodded. Even if she was actually at least ten years older than him, the two always treated each other like Lloyd was the older one. They had agreed that during the search for the others in Welgaia that that's how they'd see each for the rest of their lives. Presea liked it, because she had decided to try and relive her lost years as a twelve year-old, rather than a twenty-eight year-old.

"Hey Lloyd…" Lloyd swore he was going crazy, because Sheena sounded like she had purred that out? Sheena continued. "Did you enjoy your little nap? You seriously had all of us worried there."

"Yes, Lloyd. Please, do not do anything like that again. We were all so worried, we all started…" Presea paused as she watched Sheena glare at Zelos. "We all started arguing…" She got quieter and quieter as she finished her sentence. The entire group watched Sheena glower at Zelos. He then suddenly jerked his head towards Lloyd, and Sheena's expression softened. After all, in a way, Zelos had complimented her back in Exire. Sheena smiled.

"Hey, I'm sorry for being so… stuck up back up there. After all, you didn't really mean to upset ME, did you?" Lloyd raised an eyebrow. By that comment, did she mean that Zelos had upset someone else by accident or on purpose?

"Hey, that's ok, melon chest… Besides, you can always apologize with a kiss for me?" Zelos said, leaning nearer so his check was right in front of Sheena's face. He shut his eyes, and the next thing he knew, he could feel one of Sheena's seals attaching itself.

"You can't take that one off. I won't say the special word if you promise you NEVER make a stupid comment like that again!" Kratos watched the couple curiously. He tried to start and read the seal on Zelos' cheek.

"Bo-?"

"NOOO! Don't read it! Please!" Zelos screamed, hugging Kratos. A moment of silence passed of Kratos gave his famous 'do-it-or-else' glare to Zelos, motioning for him to let go.

The group started to head for Sybak. After hearing rumours that the Sage siblings were there, they decided it was the best option to go get them first. Colette and Regal were apparently at Altamira, which was further away. And thanks to a certain kunoichi feeling the need to return the Rheairds to Yuan, the group were forced to go by foot.

The trip was annoying everybody. They still were unsure of direct routes from one place to another.

"Lloyd, this is what you get if you slam two worlds back together without thinking about how people are going to get around!" Zelos whined, plunging his foot into yet another pile of dung. "Argh! What kind of stupid animal needs to crap this much? And look at these stupid piles! They're HUGE!" Well, when I said foot, I meant halfway up to his knee.

"Unlucky, Zelos… It might help if you stop moaning and started paying attention to where you were walking." Presea commented. "We are in unpredictable terrain. Chances of a boulder crashing down on us are 45 percent." Presea shook her head to snap out of the robotic tone. "I mean, quite likely…"

The group had been travelling through a mountain pass for some time now. They were all a little on the edge, because it looked like it was going to rain, and they had no idea if they were going in the right direction.

"We need to get out of here now." Said Kratos, his hand hovering over his sword. His angelic hearing was incredibly sharp, considered even better than Mithos'. And if he was nervous, that wasn't a good sign. "If we encounter anything here, we can't fight it off, can we?" Nods of agreement went around, and the group hurried on.

The sun was setting on the horizon, and it looked highly unlikely that the group were going to go any further that day. Zelos had already changed into his 'Yay-Sheena's-Here-On-A-Sleepover' 'pyjamas,' Lloyd was already napping and Sheena was washing her eyes out from having to see Zelos' 'pyjamas' and Presea was cooking dinner. Kratos sighed deeply, and then wondered over to Lloyd. Why did they stop now? They were only two miles off of Sybak. Or maybe… What if he had gotten them nervous in the mountain pass? That was probably it...

"Lloyd, did you hear it?" Kratos asked, sitting down next to Lloyd. Lloyd opened one eye lazily to look up at Kratos, then shut it again, letting out a yawn. Kratos nudged him with his arm, and Lloyd groaned.

"Whaaaat?" Lloyd whimpered. He opened both his eyes, but refused to sit up straight. He opened both of his eyes and rubbed them. "Please, I'm still tired. I haven't done anything for a fortnight, and it's tiring trying to keep up with you guys…"

"Lloyd, I understand that. Will you answer my question?"

"Huh, sorry? You asked a question? I didn't hear you." Lloyd laughed. Kratos just sighed, and rested his head in his hands.

"You're hopeless. Well, that's beside the point. Lloyd, while we were in the pass, did you hear anything? Like a very large monster, perhaps?" Kratos enquired.

"Oh, you heard something following us too? I thought that's why you got all edgy in there. And Zelos probably heard it. I don't know what it was, though." Lloyd shrugged his shoulders. He shut his eyes again, and wrapped himself in thoughts about what could be following them. From what Sheena had told him, monsters had decreased tremendously since the Sylvarant and Tethe'alla had come back together. But the monsters that where left were big. Very big. And certainly not the kind you'd like to meet at night.

"Lloyd, if that thing attacks us, do you feel you would be up to fighting it? You're two weeks out of practice. Not to mention tired and wobbly on you feet." Kratos' point was proved as Lloyd tried to stand up, immediately falling back over. Kratos stood up and held his hand out for Lloyd. The stubborn boy scowled and refused to get up. Kratos exhaled noisily, and gently booted his son so he fell out of his sitting up position. "You're worse than Anna sometimes, you know that?"

"I what? I've never tried to be… Are you lying to me?" Lloyd jumped up and stare his father in the eyes. Kratos was overwhelmed by how tall his son actually was, even if he wasn't the same height as himself. Lloyd's face looked very serious as he glared at Kratos, then he stepped back and lightened up. He smiled. "Come on, let's go and tell Zelos the seal Sheena's placed on his face is a dud." Lloyd laughed.

"I thought as much. I did wonder why a seal that came from Mizuho would read, 'BOO! You've been tricked!'." Kratos chuckled to himself under his breath. He did have a sense of humour; he just didn't like showing it to others. I mean, not many people would really understand his 4000 year old jokes in the current age. I mean, how many people still knew about how many jokes you could make out of 'Penelope the Quaker' when the only people who were likely to know about her would be Raine, or any other scholar without much of a social life. Not that Raine didn't have a social life.

Suddenly, a roar rippled through the sky, accompanied by the rare and not so rare sounds of Presea and Zelos' screams respectively. The father and son instantly unsheathed their swords and sprinted back to the camp. Sheena skidded past them on her back, and Lloyd helped her up.

"You ok, Sheena?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure. Fine as day. But that thing has Presea trapped, and Zelos is terrified to do anything, because he thinks that fake seal is going to go off at any moment! You two have got to go and help." Sheena panted in one breathe. She let Kratos run past, but held Lloyd back. "Are you sure you're going to be ok?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. A little fight is just what I need to get back on my feet!" Lloyd tried to run again, but Sheena's grip on him tightened.

"No, I don't doubt that. It's just that…" Sheena sighed, but Lloyd pushed her forcibly aside.

As soon as he got to the battle field, he wished he hadn't.

The attacker was none other than a giant spider.

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Whoo! Again with the laziness, but it's up here! Ican't actually rememebr when I put chapter 3 up. Sorry! ;; 

Well, I'm gonna endeavour to get chapter 5 up a lot quicker than this one. Review lots, and point out any spelling mistakes, grammar errors, wtf moments, etc. I love you guys! x

Oh yeah, plot summary! Oooh, big spider! How's Lloyd gonna hold out in this one? Or is he not? Kratos will reveal the story behind this phobia next chapter, but that's only if I get my butt in gear. See yous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x x x


	5. Scaredy Cats and Wierd Little Girls

Whoo! Me love Tos but me no own ToS. Smile please:)

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Lloyd panted heavily. Why oh why, did it have to be a spider? And a big one… 

He didn't so much mind the small ones anymore. Well, he did, but he just made sure he didn't have to be the one fighting it. If he just avoided eye contact then it wouldn't hurt him, right?

Wrong! So completely wrong! Wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong! WRONG!

Lloyd was quite aware of what was happening. The only thing he could register was one word.

'Wrong'.

"Lloyd!" Zelos roared, jumping to catch him before he was slammed into a fourth tree. Slinging his best friend over his right shoulder, he jumped down a ledge and laid Lloyd down. Carefully the pervert moved Lloyd closer to a mid-sized boulder, and propped him up against it.

Lloyd's left shoulder was bleeding where he'd been smashed into the trees. With a quick murmur of 'Healing Stream', Zelos started checking to see if Lloyd was hurt. A large bruise was on other Lloyd's shoulder. Zelos was relieved to see he's friend was still alive at least, as he winced when Zelos ran his fingers over it. Apart from some bleeding coming from just above his hairline, Lloyd appeared fine. Not sure where the wound was to heal it, Zelos torn some of Lloyd's scarf-like thing off and tied it around his head. Lloyd would kill him when he woke up, but hey, did that really matter at the moment? Besides, he hadn't made any effort to stop Zelos when he torn it off, so Lloyd reckoned it would be ok.

Another crash sounded, and Zelos caught his trousers, which had conveniently just flown over head from the shock of the impact. Well, he couldn't fight in his 'pyjamas' could he? (A/N: I'm leaving what these actually are left open for interpretation for any Zelos fan girls reading, ok?) Pulling them on quickly, he sat his friend upright, and waved his hand in front of Lloyd's face. No response. Was this what Kratos had meant by his fear of spiders?

He had no time to expand on that thought, as Sheena jumped overhead and landed just next to the two guys with an elaborate looking flip. She was holding two pieces of clothing, one pink and one black. Zelos immediately recognised them as his top and jacket.

"Hey hey, Sheena, going through my clothes, are we?" Zelos purred. Sheena slapped him, and then threw his clothes at him.

"That's the last thing I would ever do. But the second last thing I would ever do is fight next to you half dressed…" She growled in reply. Zelos pulled his top on quickly, but didn't put his jacket on. For his next sentence, he stared at his feet, so he wouldn't see her reaction.

"What about that time we were at Altamira on the beach, and the security couldn't hold the monsters off. We all ended up defending the resort in swimwear. Well, apart from Regal. I still don't know why we found him buried up to his neck in the sand…" Zelos, hard in thought, didn't notice Sheena's eye twitch and her face screw up as she tried to resist hitting him.

"That is something my memory had repressed. Thanks for reviving it…" Sheena growled.

"What is that thing, Sheena?!" Zelos shouted. He watched as Sheena tried to pull some silk off of her cheek, but she failed. She pouted at Zelos, motioning for him to help her. Zelos tapped the seal that was still stuck on his cheek. Sheena snatched it, brutally tearing it off his face. Before Zelos could open his mouth to whine about it, Sheena held the seal before his face so he could read it, before it vanished in a puff of pinky-blue smoke, like all Sheena's seals did when they had served their purpose. Zelos sniffled, and pulled the sulky face a five year old would pull if he didn't get what he wanted.

"It was a phoney ok? Get over it. I just wanted to see if it would work on you. Now get this silk off of me." Zelos just stared at Sheena defiantly. She repeated herself. "Now… GET THIS SILK OFF OF ME! BEFORE I SHOW YOU AN ANCIENT MIZUHO KILLING METHOD INVOLVING SPIDER'S SILK!!!" Feeling suitably threatened, Zelos grabbed the silk and pulled it off. He smirked.

"Heh, I bet you would have preferred Lloyd to do that for you." Sheena smacked Zelos over her head.

"The spider silk threat still stands… Hey, where is Lloyd? I've seen you and Presea, and I watch Kratos help Presea up, but I haven't seen Lloyd. Is he planning a surprise attack or something?" Zelos jerked his thumb over his shoulder to point Sheena at Lloyd.

Lloyd had been propped against a rock. His face was expressionless, and his eyes were glazed over. He almost looked like Colette when she lost her soul. Sheena crawled over and waved her hand in front of Lloyd.

"That isn't going to help you, Melon Chest. He's just completely frozen. I don't think he's even realized he was used to smash several trees yet." Zelos said gloomily. "Kratos had said Lloyd had arachnophobia, but I didn't think it was this bad… He doesn't even seem to respond to pain. And I guess…" Zelos trailed off in thought.

"That he's also very tired." Sheena finished for him. "He's been in a coma for two weeks, and you lose your training three times faster than you gain, did you know? That means he's six whole weeks out of practice." Sheena sat in thought. "I could probably bring him back to speed if he were to come to Mizuho for a bit. The training we do is at least three-fold what Lloyd usually does, so we'd have him back in shape in no time at all." Zelos started laughing hysterically at her. Sheena stared at him indignantly. "What?!"

"You know as well as I do you would want him there for another reason, Melon Chest!"

"And what reason would that be?" The kunoichi snarled, narrowing her eyes. Zelos was tip-toeing on thin ice here.

"That you'd like to date…" Zelos was unable to get any further. Sheena lunged at him and seized his hair. In a swift twirl, she got behind him and placed her other hand on the back on Zelos' head to make sure it stayed where it was. Then, with a lot of force, Sheena pulled and tugged at his hair. "Owowow, lemme go lemme go! Sheena!" Zelos wailed. Sheena only relinquished her grip when she noticed Kratos trying to stop a giant spider trying to eat them. That explains why the air smelt really strange suddenly, though…

"Sheena, put Zelos down and help my son. Zelos, quit whining about your stupid hair and go help Presea. She's over there, behind this thing." Kratos bellowed, motioning over to the right. "She's can't get the silk off of her, and she's stuck in that spot." Sheena and Zelos, both scarred of the brunette - mainly because he was like, four thousand and twenty-something years old – both immediately stopped what they were doing, and sprinted off to their jobs.

Sheena shook Lloyd violently, and then stood him up on his feet. The zombie-like teen seemed to register this. Sheena grabbed his wrist and pulled Lloyd along. He started to shuffle forward in the direction Sheena had headed in. Realizing this wouldn't be the best idea, Sheena got behind him and started pushing him instead. Happy that Sheena had Lloyd out of the way, Kratos started murmuring an incantation. Now he could really start fighting. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Presea fast approaching. Brilliant, this would get their timing spot on. Seconds before Kratos had managed to finish his spell, Presea had jumped into the air. She brought down the axe on the back of the creature's head with all the force and momentum her small frame could muster. The creature roared in agony, opening its mouth wide. Kratos fired the Eruption fire spell into the monster's mouth, while Zelos launched a Hell Pyre from behind. The combination of attacks severely burnt the creature's mouth. It roared in agony.

Knowing that the fire was working, Kratos jumped onto the creature's back and ran over to behind. His efforts were foiled when the spider landed a well-aimed blast of silk at him, knocking him to the floor. It wasn't helped by Zelos, who immediately fell over him, getting stuck in the silk himself.

"If we get out of this alive, I promise you I'll never get so close to a male again in my life." Zelos laughed. He was stuck on top of the silk cocoon that Kratos was in, with his face stuck right up next to Kratos. He probably could have gotten free, but the silk was really sticky, sticker even than what Sheena had been hit with. Kratos wasn't finding this as amusing as Zelos.

"Where are Presea and Sheena?" Kratos asked, trying to turn his face so it didn't look like he and Zelos were nearly kissing each other.

"Presea, I've got no idea. But Sheena's busy looking after your kid. Why the hell's he scared of spiders?! I mean, how stupid can it be: he saved the world but he's petrified of spiders?" Zelos growled. He couldn't believe such a ridiculous scenario.

"I suppose you're going to ask about how he got it?" Kratos asked. Zelos nodded, or at least Kratos hoped he was nodding, or else he now had one seriously crazed fan. Kratos sighed. "Well…"

"_Anna, run, run faster!"_

"_I can't! Not while I'm carrying Lloyd!" the woman running next to Kratos cried breathlessly. She was right, this was pointless with her carrying the infant Lloyd. Well, this certainly wasn't the way Kratos had desired to spend his son's second birthday. At least Lloyd didn't seem too bothered. He was asleep, riding piggy back on Anna. Kratos had led the trio into a forest, in the hopes of losing the Desians pursuing them. And it wasn't working._

"_Come out, come out, where ever you are, you pathetic inferior beings!" Anna squeaked in fear. Kratos held his finger over his lips, and then motioned for Anna to hand him Lloyd. Kratos placed his son on his back. Geez, he was big for a two year old…_

"_Little Lloydie's going be ok with you, isn't he?" Anna asked worriedly, placing her hand on Kratos' shoulder. In his sleep, Lloyd's hand stretched down and grabbed hold of Anna's. Trying to gently remove her hand from her son's, Lloyd suddenly woke up._

"_Hey mummy, are those nasty mens gone? I want my cake…" The child whined quietly. His Daddy had taught him that when the nasty mens were attacking, to stay deadly quiet, or else they'd tickle him to death. And Lloyd hated being tickled, so he obeyed._

"_It's such a pity this had to happen on Lloydie's birthday. I'll make you a new cake if we can get out of this without being tickled." Anna tapped Lloyd on the end of his nose, and he smiled. "Now Lloydie, you've got to stay with Daddy, ok? If you lose him, the nasty mens will tickle you without warning, so got to hide really well from them. And I mean REALLY well, even if it hurts, ok?" Anna couldn't stress the last sentence enough. Lloyd grimaced at the thought of being split from Mummy or Daddy, or at the concept of being hurt. But he knew what he had to do, so he pouted and nodded._

"_Anna, I'm going right, you go left. The Desi… Nasty mens are down the centre, so if we both go straight, we should lose them in the forest. Asgard isn't close, but it's not too far. Try to start heading in that direction." Kratos ordered._

"_Asgard's way too far! I doubt I could make that kind of trip! And what about Lloyd?"_

"_I said go in that direction. I'll throw them off so they believe that we're actually headed for Asgard, then I'll find you and we can head for Luin. You really do need to stop interrupting my sentences. It's annoying." Kratos growled. Anna poked her tongue out at her husband then waved good bye. She crawled under a bush, and Kratos tilted his head to see if he could take a closer look and… Damn, too late. She pulled the bottom of her dress down before he could see anything. He started blushing._

"_Daddy, Mummy said she knows you keep trying to see her undies at silly-billy times, and she doesn't like it. She said if she caught you in the act, you'd regret it? Or was it…? I can't remember…" The two year-old furrowed his brow. Kratos turned pale; he was embarrassed at the fact his son had just caught him trying to peek at his wife._

"_Come on, young man, we need to go. Now hold on tight to Daddy and keep your head down. And if a tree branch hurts you, try to not wince, ok?" Lloyd nodded, and tightened his grip on his father's shoulders, and laid his head on its side on Kratos' back. "Yeah, that's the idea. I'll make a genius out of you yet, champ. Try to go to sleep, ok?" Lloyd murmured something, which Kratos assumed was a yes. Before anything else happened, Kratos set off, jumping up into the tree tops._

_All was going quite well. The Desians hadn't spotted Kratos, and Lloyd was sound asleep, not making any noise. Well, it could have gone perfectly had Kratos not put his foot into a bird's nest. He completely lost his footing, and fell to the floor with a thud. He probably could have caught himself silently with his angelic wings, but they would send Lloyd flying. Kratos made sure he got Lloyd in his arms as he landed._

_The sudden jerk woke Lloyd up, and he started whimpering. Kratos patted Lloyd on the head, and cradled him in his arms. Lloyd stopped sobbing, and pointed. Kratos noticed that they'd been spotted by some of the Desians. His son held tighter onto the brunette, but Kratos tugged his hands to encourage Lloyd to let go. He put Lloyd on the ground, and gently pushed his son into a bush. He drew the Flamberge, ready to fight. After making sure Lloyd was hidden well enough, he charged at the Desians._

"I'm not quite sure what happened next, but when I eventually found Lloyd, there was a Desian with him. We had a toy spider dangled in front of Lloyd, who couldn't stop crying. I pushed the Desian out of Lloyd's sight and finished him. When I found Anna again, not even she could stop Lloyd from crying." Kratos sighed.

"Hey, I never would have guesses you were a pervert!" Zelos laughed. "I always thought that I was the only one in the group!" Kratos cringed.

"Is that the only part of the story you listened to?" Kratos exclaimed wildly, trying to break his way out of the cocoon. "Seriously! You're hopeless!"

"Geez, sorry! Yes, I did listen to your story. So you reckon it was that Desian that did it?"

"I didn't think it at first, but, while staying at Dirk's home while waiting for Lloyd to awaken, I did hear an interesting story…" Kratos sighed, shutting his eyes.

"No! No more flash backs! Please!" Zelos cried, waving his arms around. "Hey, wait a minute! I'm free!" Zelos jumped up, kissing his arms.

Suddenly, the distinctive scream of Sheena sliced the air. Zelos ran off, stranding Kratos in the cocoon. Kratos simply sighed, and started working on breaking free.

Zelos was panicking. While Kratos had been distracting him with that stupid and boring story, he had completely last that damn spider, not to mention Presea. Oh crap, wherever that dumb spider was, Zelos bet the others would be with it. That meant that the spider could have eaten them, perhaps? Noo, the initial assault Presea started prevented that, as it completely burnt up its mouth. It would be too painful for the spider and…

"Argh! Presea! Stop it!" No doubt about it. That was Sheena's scream. He may have rejected his angelic abilities slightly, but Zelos had only discarded his wings, while keeping his senses enhanced. And with that, Zelos realized Sheena was…over to his right. He set off in a sprint towards his goal.

The sight he reached was baffling. Presea, who looked different somehow, was cackling with laughter. She pointed at Sheena, and the spider lunged at her. Sheena slammed against a rock face, and fell out cold.

'_Since when was Presea able to control giant spiders?' _Zelos briefly wondered to himself. "Presea?! What are you doing?!" He shouted. She spun around quickly. In her left hand, she was holding Lloyd by the collar. She didn't seem to be worried about dragging Lloyd around on the floor. "Eh?! Young lady, put Lloyd down!"

"I'd love to, 'cause he's like, completely the heaviest thing I've ever picked up. But then again, Dyol'd probably like, completely kill me if I put this loser down." The girl gasped and clamped her hands over her mouth. "Oh crap, now he really will like, completely kill me for telling you his name! Looks like I'm going to have to like, completely kill you now! Like, completely not sorry, Ginger!" The brat waved. Zelos burnt up from inside. He was a red-head, not a ginger. The last guy who called him that was a Desian, and he went 'mysteriously' missing ages ago.

Zelos looked up and down at the little girl. She looked almost exactly like Presea. She had ankle length pink hair, held up with two bunchies. She was quite small, and had icy blue cold eyes. She wore a halter-neck blue dress with a large black flower towards the bottom and black lining where it buttoned up.She also wore an oversized belt around her middle, handing off one off her hips. But what disturbed Zelos the most was her creepy smile. She was really enjoying this torment.

"Hey, Smiley Pipsqueak, put Lloyd down or I'll cut those ridiculously long bunchies clean off of your head." The little girl screamed in rage.

"What… did you…like, completely…just call me?" She stuttered. She clenched her fist, her knuckles turning white. Zelos realized maybe it hadn't been such a good idea to call the brat a name. Oh well, if he'd beaten another snot-nosed brat before, surely this one wouldn't be a problem. "You, Mr. Ginger, are like, completely dead!" Zelos looked around for help. He started building up his options in his head. '_Lloyd, nope: busy being held hostage, unconscious as it now appears. When did that Smiley Pipsqueak knock him out? Anyway… Sheena, nope: unconscious. Kratos, nope: still stuck in the silk. Damn, wish I'd helped him out… And where the hell is Presea?'_

The girl cast Lloyd to the spider, where it created a silk cocoon over him to make sure he didn't try anything. She jumped up in the air. Before Zelos knew it, she was at least 10 foot in the air above him. With a quick hand gesture, she summoned a huge axe to her hands, and held it above her, winding up to cleave all the way through Zelos' head.

The pervert tried to move out the way; with all the force the girl was going at, her axe would be stuck in the ground, leaving her vulnerable. Zelos willed his legs to move, but he couldn't. She was already to close, and Zelos was paralyzed with fear.

This was going to be light's out for the two worlds' favourite male Chosen.

* * *

NOOOOOO! Zelos! (Cue squealing fangirls) Don't kill Zelos, little pink haired girly! By the way, I'm goning to be drawing the little girl, and when she's finished, I'll let you know, and put the link to the website down here, in the little random section I always put in! Hopefully, it'll be on the next chapter, because I'm going off to draw her... NOW! Ok, not quite yet, but you get what I mean... 

Ok, who those who were wondering, I've got the plot all planned out on a piece of paper now, so I can predict more acurately what's gonna happen in what chapter, rather than having to guess what chapter everything's happen in. Yay, I'm organised for once in my life!

And guess what's next? Not only do we find out if Zelos makes it (mwahaha, his life is in my hands!) but we wil also be seeing Shelloyd! Yay! Whoo! Go me!

So please R & R, because although I'm a lazy bum, I am incredibly motivated if people back me up! Incredibly! So please, R& R!


	6. Butterfly Cleavers and Cold Nights

Whoo! I feel a little hyper while typing this! So tell me if you guys catch any spelling mistakes, ok? Unless I'm perfectly calm, I can't type without spelling mistakes. It just is impossible. Whoo! On with the story!

Oh yeah, I don't own ToS.

Also, before I forget, I got my little sis to proofread the last chapter, and pointed out I forgot to say how I do a couple of thingies.

"This is normal speaking."

'_This is the character thinking thoughts.'_

_This is a flashback or anything like that.

* * *

_

'_Crap! Come on you stupid legs. Move! Move, you damn limbs, move! I'm not a scaredy cat, unlike Mr. World Saviour, who hates spiders! Oh man, how pathetic is that? Some one help me…' _Zelos begged in his head. Time had almost slowed down, and it was taking an eternity for that creepy little girl to kill him. It had seemed like at least a week, and that girl had only fallen a foot towards him.

"You are like, completely so gonna die now, loser!" The little girl screeched viciously. Zelos glanced up. There was a clear bloodlust in her eyes. It was a pity, because she looked no older than Genis, and she seemed to enjoy killing.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that." A young female voice growled.

"What the fu…" Zelos couldn't quite see what happened next. It all happened so quickly. One moment his doom was coming down upon him with a giant axe and a bloodlust, and the next, she's not?

"Zelos, enraging the enemy is a sure way to defeat. Try to be more careful next time in my absence." Zelos looked about frantically. A young girl whose words are precise and to the point: Presea. And the real one, hopefully.

"Boy am I glad to see you, little Rosebud." Zelos sighed, and fell to his knees. "You really helped me out there, so I owe you one." Presea nodded, and started a fight with the girl. The vicious girl was furious.

"You call her like, completely a nice name, and not me? Who the hell do you like, completely think you are? Like, completely stupid idiot!" She screeched, charging towards Presea, holding her axe behind her. "Do you even know like, completely who I am? On second thoughts, like, completely don't answer that question. I'll like, completely introduce… Hey, like, completely stop ignoring me!" She screeched. Zelos was picking some leaves out of Presea's hair, while she was telling him why she had been delayed.

"Well, we had just finished that triple attack, when that weird girl grabbed me from behind!" Presea growled sadly.

"Why?" Zelos pouted. This was getting way beyond weird now.

"Yes." Presea said quietly, looking at the ground while turning around. She looked up quickly, with a fierce angry look. "What was your idea, eh? It was foolish messing with us." She rested her hand on the bottom of her blade, resting the axe on the floor. Her voice became quieter, and more menacing. "You grab me from behind and blindfold me. You then knock my axe out of my grasp and spin me around several times. If it was a practical joke, start saying your prayers."

"Oh, are you like, completely getting all mad at me? You can get like, completely mad at me if you really have to… You would like, completely do something if Lloyd asked you to do it, right?" The pink-haired shrugged. Zelos and Presea exchanged confused looks. Zelos then motion to the spider, with the unconscious Lloyd in its grasp. Presea looked over, then nodded, and laughed.

"This is going to be easy." Presea sneered. The attacker swung her axe towards Presea, who, in a flash, had brought up her own axe in defence.

"My axe is like, completely pretty. It's like, completely called the Butterfly Cleaver." The girl sang cheerfully. The axe had a purple handle and blade with a silver edge. The handle had ornate silver decoration, and the blade itself was in a butterfly shape, with little silver butterflies decorating it. Presea used her axe to push the girl back, and then while she was reeling, geared up for an Endless Infliction. Presea charged forward, drawing the first crescent moon. The girl turned her axe swiftly and held it up, catching the Gaia Cleaver in a notch on the top. Presea landed and tried to pull her axe out. No luck.

"The purpose of the axe is to be heavy and sharp enough to inflict damage on the opponent, not to be pretty." Presea grunted. She tossed her axe up so it was still caught on the other, leaving the girl under the weight of both axes. In the swift movement, Presea crouched, and swung her leg out in a semi-circle, taking her opponent off of her feet. The girl stumbled back and panicked, flailing her arms. This caused the Gaia Cleaver to come loss from the Butterfly Cleaver. As she fell backwards and hit the ground, the girl noticed the Gaia Cleaver coming at her. She tried to roll out of the way. Presea's axe hit its target.

"Haha! That's my little Rosebud! Nice going Presea!" Zelos cheered. He was cheering so actively, Presea wouldn't have been too surprised had he suddenly donned a cheerleader outfit with pom-poms.

"Thank you very much, Zelos. It is my duty to protect my friends, and I am happy when I succeed." Presea smiled sweetly. She turned around to look at the injured attacker. The Gaia Cleaver had quite literally cleaved through her shoulder. Slowly, the injured attacker got onto her feet. "What are you doing?! Such a blow should have been fatal!" Presea gasped, and started pointing at the girl's shoulder, stuttering what she was trying to say.

"Humph, are you like, completely surprised? That's right; I like, completely don't bleed." The girl laughed, and then grasped her shoulder suddenly. Zelos walked over to her sympathetically.

"You may not bleed, but you're certainly hurt. Stop the attack, Little Missy, before you die. 'Cause I'm quite sure Presea wouldn't hesitate to kill you. And that's only if I hesitate." Zelos said solemnly. The girl sighed.

"Fine, fine, this round is like, completely over. And you can like, completely have your friend back." She clicked, and the spider silk around Lloyd unravelled. "Oh yeah, and like, completely don't call me stupid things again, because I will be coming back for another fight. My name is like, completely Aese." She laughed, and turned on her heel. Aese suddenly clapped, and, with a bright flash of light, she was gone. Her giant spider was gone too.

"Finally…" Zelos sighed. He walked over to where Sheena was lying, and hoisted her up onto his back. "Hey hey, I could get used to this. Sheena, get yourself knocked out more often." Zelos laughed, shrugging his left shoulder to jog Sheena. Presea let out an audible sigh, annoyed yet relieved that Zelos was behaving normally.

"Hello! Can anyone hear me?"

"Huh? Who's there?" Zelos called out. Zelos and Presea looked around frantically, looking for the origin of the voice.

"It's me, Kratos!" The voice cried out. As soon as he finished, he walked into view from behind a tree. His hand hovered around the hilt of his blade. "Where is that little girl? Did she escape?"

"Yes, we let her go. She was in no shape to fight us anymore, so we let her go. Although, that may have been a bad decision. She did say she would return." Presea replied sadly, resting her chin in her hand.

"With an injury such as the one you dealt? If she does return, it won't be for a good time, trust me." Zelos laughed. Sheena grunted wearily, as if she was dreaming. Zelos turned his head to address the sleeping kunoichi. "Alright, alright already, I hear you." He turned his head to talk to Kratos. "I have a feeling we should set up camp, don't you?" There were several nods of agreement.

------------

"Hunh?" Sheena yawned. Her head pounded, and she tenderly rubbed the top of it, ruffling her hair as she did. _'Oh… What on earth happened to me?'_

"Why, good morning, Sleeping Beauty. Or rather, good night." Sheena sat up sharply and turned around. Her vision blurred and she felt faint. She felt a hand on her back catch her. She rubbed her eyes, and turned around slowly to see whop had caught her.

"Oh, it's you…" Sheena sighed. _'Damn, why'd it have to be Zelos? Why couldn't it have been…?'_ "Lloyd! Where's Lloyd?" Sheena squealed.

"Geez, I catch you, and you ask me where Lloyd is. You're lovely sometimes, Melon Chest." Zelos shut his eyes and sulked, only to be met with a quick slap. "He's over there." Zelos vaguely pointed to Lloyd's direction. "He woke up a while ago, but Kratos told him to go back to sleep. He's been asleep since then. Come to think of it, he only woke up around half an hour ago." Zelos stared at the sky, rubbing his chin. "That Aese brat must have knocked him hard to keep him out like that. Mind you, he completely froze up with that spider, so maybe I'm not so surprised… Hey, where are you going?" Sheena had gotten up, and started to wonder over to where Lloyd was.

"To see Lloyd, where else?" Sheena giggled.

"Yeah, whatever. Just leave me alone on night watch then…" Zelos wiped a tear from his face, then grunted angrily. "My only real friend, and he's gotten the best woman in the world, who should be my woman, wrapped around his finger. He's a jerk sometimes…"

Sheena walked over. A weird fog had settled, so finding where Lloyd actually was lying was getting a bit hard. Well, it was hard until Sheena fell over him.

"Huh?" Was the muffled reply. "What happened? Is there a monster attacking? Who is it who's actually on top of me? 'Cause if it's nothing important, Dad told me to sleep, and you know how scary he is. G'Night…" During that sentence, Lloyd had sat up, pushed Sheena off of him, and gone back to sleep. Sheena got up quickly, and nudged him with her foot.

"Wake up, lazy!" she snarled. Lloyd opened one eye to see who it was who had kicked him. Upon realizing it was Sheena, he rubbed his eyes and sat up to talk to her.

"Oh, sorry Sheena." He smiled.

"Did you even wake up fully when you pushed me off of you?" Sheena sat down next to Lloyd.

"Huh? You were on top of me? Sheena, I know we're friends and all, but isn't that getting…" Lloyd blushed as he finished his sentence. "You know… A little close for friends?" Sheena bit her lip.

"Oh, sorry…" Sheena sniffled. _'Does he not like me after all? Damn that Colette… No, it's not her fault, is it? But then why? If he doesn't like me, then I guess it's my fault. I suppose he always did like Colette more than me. I mean, they're like childhood friends, and I'm just someone who butted in the middle, and I was originally trying to assassinate them and such, and I got all scared when they asked me to form the pacts with the Summon Spirits, and then I got them all tied into a few Mizuho matters which were really bad and about Grandpa and such, and it's really no wonder Lloyd doesn't like me but I know he won't show it and I know that's what he thinks, and I wonder if he knows that I know that's the way he thinks, and if he knows that I know that he knows that I know that's the way he thinks, and I know that the others don't like me much, but the fact the Lloyd doesn't like me hurts more, and… OMG! What if the others know that I know that Lloyd doesn't like me, and if they know that I know that he knows that I know that he doesn't like me, and, and, and… My head hurts…'_

"Sheena, are you ok? You're crying…" Sheena blinked. Lloyd had both his hands on her shoulders, and was staring at her worriedly. She rubbed her eyes quickly, and turned around so Lloyd wouldn't see how red she was going.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. Just, err, have a little hay fever, or something… There's too much pollen in the air…" Sheena was rubbing her eyes furiously, trying to get rid of the tears and to make Lloyd believe she actually did have hay fever. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey Sheena, you don't have to lie to me about crying… I'm not a complete idiot like Genis seems to have decided." Lloyd huffed, blowing some of his hair out of his face. Sheena laughed. She had always found it funny when Genis insulted Lloyd's intelligence. But that was because she realized that Lloyd's mind was the logical sort, because although he couldn't show it well, he was good at thinking problems through to the end, while Genis was much more academic.

"I wasn't crying… And even if I was, I don't feel like talking about it… So please leave me alone!" Sheena snapped, crossing her arms.

'_Damn. She doesn't like me, does she? I know it's really her choice to tell me why she was crying, but she could at least not lie to me about it. Ahh, I suppose I'm not really meant for her, because, even though I ant to help her and be with her, she probably wants me to go off with Colette and leave her and Mizuho matters behind. Yeah, that's probably the reason. I bet she thinks I would be just a burden, and now I know that. But I wonder if she knows that I know that, and now if she knows that I know that she knows that I know she doesn't want me bothering her. Damn it…" _Lloyd sighed noisily, then he turned over to go back to sleep.

"Eh, Lloyd, what are you doing?" Sheena shook him. _'Crap! Crap! Crap, he's going to sleep because he's sick off me! I need to at least apologize!' _Sheena shook Lloyd harder. She had never met anybody who could fall asleep in 5 seconds. "LLOYD!" Lloyd woke up with a jump. He stood up with his blanket still wrapped around him, and a sulky scowl on his face.

"What? Aren't I annoying you enough as it is?" Lloyd sulked. Sheena just laughed. "What is it now?" Lloyd asked impatiently.

"You look like a little kid like that! You're so lucky Zelos isn't here at the moment!" Sheena fell backward laughing, while Lloyd's face changed to the colour of his clothes. He sat down again and helped Sheena up. She sat there in tears for a bit, then quietened down when she got breathless.

"Sheena, you're really weird sometimes. I think I'm never ever going to understand girls."

"You will do some day. Well, if you devoted your entire life to it, anyway…" Sheena laughed, then stopped when she saw Lloyd frown. _'Oh yeah, the whole angels-live-nearly-forever thingy…'_ Sheena inhaled sharply, then breathed out slowly and deeply. _'Way to go, idiot…'_

"Hey, Sheena. It's late. We should sleep. And don't worry. If you really want me to learn about girls, I'm open to suggestions as to where to start." Sheena smiled. It was unbelievable sometimes how h could just smile through everything. "Come on, go to sleep, Sheena, I'll see you in the morning…" Lloyd lied down, pulling his blanket up around him. Sheena shivered.

"Lloyd…" Sheena whined. "It's cold, and I don't have a blanket." Lloyd threw his over Sheena, and then rolled over to see if she was happy with that. "No, that's not what I meant."

"What exactly do you want then?"

"Can I sleep next to you tonight, please?" Lloyd opened his left eye to check Sheena hadn't suddenly gone crazy. "Just, like, next to you, so we could share warmth, because it's cold and such…"

"Fine…"

* * *

I'm quite tired while typing this... Sorry it's late, but I've been struggling with my English Essay on Romeo and Juliet (I won't comment further due to my English teacher being a memeber of this site...) and I still haven't finished, and I really really hate Shakespeare at the moment... So please, review it, and maybe when my essay's finished, chapter 7 may come a little quicker.

By the way, Iknow it's a silly idea, seeing as this is my first fan fic, but I have ideas for a Kingdom Hearts story, so that may be popping up soon...


	7. Bandaging Boos Boos and Hatching Plots

For killerbunbun, who was the first to catch that I'd added a new chapter (even if it was an author's note – and yeah, sorry about that).

By the way, if this all sounds out of place or screwed up or just plain weird, please remember that I haven't worked on this in donkey's years and I am off school with head aches and random bouts of dizziness which makes it kind of hard to concentrate while writing this, okay? I would wait 'til later, but I don't want to keep you guys waiting any more! Also, I have had to take breaks, so while I promised this to be coming out on the same day as the last chapter, it hasn't. I'm so sorry!!

* * *

Zelos whimpered lamely as Presea bandaged his head again. He hadn't really been hurt there, but he was being such a drama queen that he refused to go anywhere until he was content that he had enough bandages so it was sure that he wasn't going to die. So, here they were, sat on the ground near the remains of a camp-fire, with Presea standing behind him loaded down with an array of first aid equipment. Why Kratos carried so much on him was a mystery nobody would be bothering to solve any time soon.

"I think I know how Raine feels when you go all pathetic now…" Presea sighed exasperatedly. Zelos turned his head to look at her, trying to make his best puppy eyes at the girl. Presea sighed and brandished a pair of scissors, ready to cut the bandages and tie it up so it wouldn't become loose. Zelos gasped and flinched, then jumped onto his feet and out of Presea's reach, while the same roll of bandages came undone and dangerously close to winding his feet up.

"Y'know, I'm thinking that I feel _much_ better now, so there's no need for open surgery Presea!" he yelled, running out of the small girl's sight with several bandages trailing behind him. She sighed wearily, and decided that if Zelos wanted to run around with an entire roll of bandage dangling off his head and threatening to trip him up, he could feel free. And with his constant teasing of Lloyd and the whole spiders thing, he might need it sometime soon. Although him falling over was bound to be funny.

"_No Presea. Thinking like that will only bring about another half an hour of bandaging Zelos' 'boo-boos' resulting from a less than graceful fall or Lloyd's fist. He's in such a foul mood this morning, who knows what he'll do... I hope Sheena can help him."_ she thought to herself, putting the scissors back in the small box Kratos had provided her. How all the equipment fitted, another mystery.

And, just within hearing range, Presea heard a yelp, a scream, a loud crash, and then a series of curses, which meant that she would need more bandages.

When Lloyd and Sheena had gotten up, Sheena avoided asking him directly what was wrong last night, and spent the morning trying to coax some information out of Lloyd. Kratos had told her about Lloyd's issue with the spiders when he was younger – and much to his dismay got asked if he was a pervert again – and so she realised she couldn't ask directly about that, as it would destroy whatever pride he had managed to salvage from last night.

The two of them has spent the entire morning sat on the floor just talking and admiring the view, or telling Zelos to go away whenever he tried to 'help Lloyd get over things'. It had been an awkward morning, as Lloyd fluctuated from not wanting to talk whatsoever and getting grumpy if Sheena tried to start another conversation, to suddenly becoming very nervous to speak his mind. Sheena was actually quite worried about Lloyd. He had mumbled so many things in his sleep, ranging from 'Get away from them' to something incomprehensible about Raine and cooking. She was worried he was having nightmares, especially if he was mentioning Raine's cooking, and had noticed him suddenly wake up from time to time in a panicked sweat, but pretended to remain asleep in case made him think he was keeping her up. In fact, whenever she noticed him wake up suddenly, she just tried to move closer to him to try and make him feel more comfortable. She really didn't want to upset Lloyd right now, or let anyone else upset him - especially Zelos, whose idea of cheering someone up was to let them have their pick of girls from Meltokio if they went back there any time soon.

Lloyd, meanwhile, was sat on the floor feeling very sorry for himself. Despite Sheena's attempts to cheer him up, he had suddenly realised quite how useless he had been last night, and all because of a damn spider. Well, O.K., it was a giant spider, but still, it was still no excuse. He had had so many dreams last night, or rather nightmares, where he would be sitting with all his friends around a camp-fire (while Raine was cooking, which was a rarity), then suddenly a little spider would come and eat them, and he couldn't do anything for fear. He felt pathetic, being the saviour of the worlds and letting spiders nearly devour his friends. However, he had found it incredibly reassuring to wake up finding Sheena cuddling up to him. A small part of him hoped that she wasn't cuddling him for warmth, rather just for wanting to be with him. But, knowing that something had sparked off between Sheena and Colette revolving around him, maybe he should keep his feelings for Sheena quiet for now.

"So, what was that little girl from last night like? I remember her looking like Presea." Lloyd asked suddenly, breaking the silence that had settled between him and Sheena.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, she did, actually. And those two got into a one-on-one fight, as well. Presea won quite skilfully, though." Sheena laughed suddenly. "And she had this weird little comment she stuck in almost every sentence she said. It's was 'like, completely' or something. She was talkative..."

"Unlike Presea." Lloyd replied. Sheena turned her head to look at him. He carried on staring ahead for a few seconds, then turned his head to face Sheena, then looked away at the ground. Although he didn't sad or angry any more, he still looked like something was bothering him.

"Hey Lloyd," Sheena said quietly, nervous as to not upset him any further, "are you feeling any better now?" Lloyd glanced up at her and smiled weakly. She frowned, confused as to what he was feeling like. Seeing that he had made her frown, Lloyd began to frown as well, then tried to lighten up the situation and pulled a funny face at her. Her expression changed to one of shock, but then started to giggle. Happy that he was successful in cheering Sheena up, Lloyd began to smile himself. And with the sudden burst of confidence that came with it, he grabbed Sheena around the waist and gave her a hug.

_"It's my life, and Colette should just be happy for me rather than jealous. I'm not some kind of prize to be fought over."_ Lloyd thought to himself.

And all Sheena could manage was, "Oh, I guess you are then."

Elsewhere, in an unknown location, a young girl with pink hair was getting her comeuppance for failing to capture her intended target.

"Well, Aese, if you were trying to look stupid, you certainly succeeded in that."

"You only managed to escape on their_ mercy_. It's pitiable. And, you also revealed part of our secret as to what we really are."

"Well you two can like, completely shut up. Maybe, Anee, if you were so busy thinking up like, completely nasty comments about me, and if Sole stopped boring people to death, you two could actually try to do this. Since when did I get dumped with all the like, completely dumb grunt work?" Aese snapped.

The chamber the small group were in was tall, long and thin. It was cold and mossy, and almost completely overrun by various plants. Trees arched over in the middle to form a sort of lower down ceiling, and shrubs lined the walls while flowers haphazardly decorated the grassy ground. At one end of the chamber there were large doors, made out of strong oak, with pictures of forests and flowers carved in delicate patterns. At the other end, there was a throne formed from a tree, which had grown around the section that had been turned into a seat, cloaking the throne in branches. Sat in the throne was a woman, and standing to her left was a man. In front of the throne was Aese, who was talking to the two people.

"Because you're the youngest. Wasn't it obvious to you?" a monotonous male voice replied calmly.

"Sole, it's getting increasingly hard to like, completely believe who you originally were. You're now like, completely Mr. Boooooring..." Anee chanted, following it with several rounds of 'boring, boring, like, completely Mr. Boring!' in a sing-song voice.

"Well, at least I don't repeat some random little phrase all the time like a stupid child." Sole replied.

Sole was quite a tall man, with medium length orange hair that constantly teased his shoulders, held in place by a dull white head band that was tied up with a fat knot at the back of his head, that covered some of his hair as well as his fore head. He had small greyish blue eyes, mostly hidden by his hair. He wore a black shirt with the top most buttons undone, and sleeves that reached his elbows. Over his shirt, he wore a small pink jacket, with a zip up the front that was never done up. On his hands he wore peachy pink fingerless gloves, decorated with golden lines and sections of black on the palms. He wore white trousers, the same colour as his bandanna, that were slightly puffy towards the bottom, and white boots with golden circle decoration.

"But don't you see, that's what sets her apart from her original self, and, quite honestly, I prefer Aese. She's so much easier to wind up..." Anee said rudely.

Anee was sat on the throne with her legs crossed casually, and she was also quite tall. Although she wasn't as tall as Sole, she was still tall enough to make Aese feel constantly very small. She had long black hair, loosely plaited and tied with a long, fraying pink ribbon. What she didn't tie up, she tucked behind her ears so that it wasn't obscuring her face. She wore a black strapless top, and over that, she wore a long pale purple, kimono style top with long sweeping sleeves that hid her gloves, that were the same colour. She also wore a pair a black shorts that ended a couple of inches short of her knees, and a couple of inches below that, long boots covered her knees, the same blueish purple as the rest of her outfit, with small blue and blue decorations over it.

"Wow, a nice comment for like, completely me, from Anee. Sole was like, completely right, a snowball is surviving somewhere in Hell." Aese snickered. Anee rolled her eyes, and turned to Sole.

"Anyway... What's our next plan of action, then?"

"We need to capture Lloyd." Sole stated.

"Yeah, we like, completely know that, Captain Obvious." Aese sighed. "Try telling us something we like, completely don't know."

Sole cleared his throat. "Well, we have tried to use his fear to capture him, but that hasn't worked quite as planned. Whether that was due to Aese's incompetence or the fact Lloyd's friends protected him so well is unclear." Aese yelped in annoyance. "Regardless, Lloyd is our top priority. But we must not forget why we need him so much, ladies."

"To start The Revolution. We need him, but the power of the Eternal Sword comes as a useful extra. A very useful extra, that will make The Revolution so much easier. Maybe sending a stupid little girl to capture him was a stupid idea. Maybe we need to send some more... fire power" Anee sneered, clicking her fingers. Upon her command, a figure shot up from the grassy floor, slowly forming into something that resembled a long slender dragon. "Now the question is, do we send Aese again, leaving us the probability of the whole operation getting screwed up again, or do all three of us go?"

"Anee, that was like, completely uncalled for! I didn't like, completely screw it up by myself. That giant spider you made was like, completely crap. You couldn't summon a decent banana if you like, completely needed to." Aese replied sharply, waving her arms in the air angrily.

"Besides, what was with the 'fire power' comment? Did you forget that we would probably incinerate ourselves if we used fire?" Sole asked slowly, emphasising the incinerating part."

"No, I used it as an expression. Jeez, I can never get anything right with you two. Anyway, here's my plan. Now, according to our spy, the group are headed for Sybak to find the two half-elves that went there for a lecture or something. They aren't exactly sure if they're going in the right direction, and they're all a bit edgy from Aese's attack last night, even if that all ended in a big flop. What we would do is..."

* * *

Well, several days late, and I'm very sorry. Iternet access has been a bit of an issue, not to mention arguements with my spell check, so feel free to pick out any spelling or grammar errors you pick up.

Please don't hate me because this is so late! I'm going to try and start up a time plan, updating this story by at least one chapter every fornight, if not more. I hope to have the next chapter up by next Sunday at the latest, and then I'm going to start the whole 'one a fornight' thing.

Please R&R. I do appreciate, and again, I'm sorry I haven't updated in like, ages. TTTT I'll be better behaved from now on.


	8. Hair Cuts and Freaky Plants

Whoops, late again. I don't think even setting deadlines is going to help me get this to you guys more regularly. Sorry. I'll just say this was due to (long story short) technical difficulties.

Enjoy! Oh yeah, and before I forget (yet again) ToS doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Namco.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No. You asked that five seconds ago, and five seconds ago before that."

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No! Now stop asking! We'll get there when we get there!"

"O.K., O.K., calm down! I was only asking…" Zelos sighed, and tucked his arms behind his head, while carrying on walking. "It's just that, you guys have given me pretty much all the heavy stuff, and, well, funnily enough, it's kind of heavy…"

"I can carry it. It wouldn't be any problem." Lloyd replied. "I don't see why I wasn't carrying it in the first place. Well, some of it..."

"Because we don't want you hurting yourself." Kratos replied solemnly. "You have already had one… incident, and we want to make sure you are fully recovered."

Lloyd and Zelos sighed at the exact same time. Zelos was upset for being used a s a slave, and Lloyd didn't want to be treated like a baby, but Sheena had insisted that he didn't hurt himself, coming up with the excuse that all the Mizuho ninjas would have a break after an injury so that they were in top shape, because otherwise they could endanger a mission. This had worried Kratos, not only as a fighter, as he didn't want anything slowing them down, but as a father, too.

"Sooooooooo..." Zelos sighed.

"What now?" Sheena snapped, not even turning her head to look at him.

"How about... A game of I-Spy? I'll start – I spy with my little eye, two things big and round, and they're on someone's chest..." Sheena swivelled on her heel to face the redhead, cracking her knuckles while doing so. The entire group came to a stop.

"O.K. Pervert, my turn. I spy with my little eye some dumb red head who is going to die within the next ten seconds!" she yelled, disappearing from sight, and reappearing suddenly in front of Zelos. He smiled briefly and nervously before Sheena grabbed him by the ear and dragged him behind a tree, ignoring the cries and screams for help.

"Just leave him intact this time, O.K. Sheena?" Lloyd called, before carrying on walking again. Presea soon followed suit. Kratos stood still, completely dumbfounded. He muttered something incomprehensible, pointing at the tree Sheena and Zelos were behind and Lloyd and Presea walking off.

"Y-y-you're just going to leave?" Kratos managed to stutter.

"Um, yes?" Presea answered bluntly, as if it was the most natural thing to do.

"We call Zelos 'Sheena's Stress Reliever Punch Bag' in situations like this. And don't worry about it." Lloyd stopped and faced Kratos. "You know healing magic, don't you?" Kratos nodded. "Then you can patch him up when Sheena catches up and drags him along." Lloyd smiled, then rushed a little to catch up with Presea. Kratos just shrugged, then also joined his son and his pink haired companion. At least this group wasn't quite as _insane_ as Mithos and the others had been, for want of a better word. Well, there was no way anybody could ever get in a stupider situation as when Yuan decided to explore that creepy old swamp, which Martel thought was a brilliant idea...

* * *

Behind a tree, Zelos was supported only by Sheena holding his shirt. He was pretty sure his bruised legs were dead, but he tried to stand on them anyway. In her other hand there were several cards, and Zelos were pretty sure they were the specific ones Sheena set aside from each set to be used for summoning. After all, he'd only seen them like, ten million times before, not only in battles, in situations like this, when Sheena was going to hurt him.

"Who do you want this time, Zelos? Efreet, Shadow or Gnome?" Sheena asked, poking Zelos' cheek with three cards, one marked red, another black and another brown.

"What, no lady summons? Why?"

"Because I want you to know that I think you should start expanding your audience – appeal to a male crowd. With your girly hair, you'd do well." Sheena replied, smirking.

"Now that's not funny Sheena." Zelos laughed sheepishly.

"Isn't it? Oh well, lemme help you, then." Sheena dropped Zelos on the floor, and for a moment he laid still on the rough ground, trying to play dead. A few moments later, Sheena nudged him with her foot, then, and when he didn't respond, she kicked him in the ribs. Flinching from the sudden pain, Zelos got on his knees and grabbed at his aching chest. He heard a blade slice through the air, prompting him to close his eyes and brace himself for the inevitable cut – although it was odd, as Sheena had never been quite this violent before as to use knives in any punishments she gave him.

...

No injury came. Zelos nervously opened one eye and glance up at Sheena. She was looking cocky and triumphant, and in one hand she was holding a small curved kunai, and in her other hand was…

"H-hey! Isn't that…?" Zelos stuttered fearfully, grabbing his hair. It felt like there was less of it, not to mention shorter. He wheeled around, still on his one knee, to see a lot of little strands of red hair – his hair. He turned around again. Sheena was leaning forward, offering Zelos her trophy – a large amount of his hair that she must have cut off from the roots.

"If you want to keep it in one piece, I can loan you my ribbon for now…" Sheena sneered, holding onto the hair so that it wouldn't fall apart, although it would be funny to watch Zelos scurry around trying to gather the strands up.

"Humph! You owe me that much…" he replied sulkily, snatching the hair from her hand, and holding it tightly so he wouldn't lose it.

Carefully, Sheena untied her hair, handing Zelos the small pink ribbon. She watched with great interest as he carefully tried to tie a bow with the ribbon, only to tie up one of his fingers and almost lose all the hair. Sighing, Sheena knelt down and unhooked him, tying the hair up properly before throwing the small bundle for him to catch.

"Stand up. I want to see if I should pursue a career as a hairdresser?" Sheena asked while getting up, laughing loudly at Zelos. Stuffing the precious bundle in his pocket, he reluctantly got up and turned his back to Sheena.

"Happy now?" Zelos snapped. "Maybe I'll finally leave you alone now rather than improve your life with my glorious presence."

"Oops."

"'Oops' what?!"

"Nothing…" Sheena smirked. "I think I'll stick to the ninja scene."

Sheena had only meant to trim the ends to panic Zelos, but she'd taken off a few inches by mistake. His hair now fell just past his shoulders, and it was almost dead straight, rather than ending slightly curly like it used to.

"Sheena, poke my back where my hair ends…"

"That sounds real dirty…"

"Just do it!" Zelos snapped suddenly, almost angrily. Sheena begun to regret what she'd done, warily walking up to his back. Carefully, she tapped his back where his hair ended. She wasn't expecting his reaction.

"Perfect! I'd been thinking of getting my hair cut! Thanks, Sheena!" He turned around to face Sheena, grinning from ear to ear. Sheena, however, wasn't quite so happy.

"Damn it, Zelos, you were meant to be pissed off with it!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Lloyd and Presea were playing R.P.S Ex, some weird evolution of Rock – Paper - Scissors that could be played on the move. However, only Lloyd and Presea seemed to really understand how to play, seeing as they had invented it. Kratos watched the two intently, trying to learn its rules.

"It's not that difficult, really. Tornado is this hand gesture..." Lloyd paused his explanation briefly to twist his hands together and flail his fingers madly. "And basically, it beats almost everything, but you can only use it once." Kratos tried to mimic the gesture.

"Tornado loses out to Judgement" Presea made several sudden violent downwards stabs with her fingers, "Which you can only use if your opponent has beaten you five times. "It's sort of like an over limit of R.P.S. Ex, but it can be beaten by End of World." Kratos nodded slowly and uncertainly, half-heartedly copying the 'Judgement' movement.

"So, what does End of World look like, and what are its conditions?" Kratos asked.

Suddenly, in the background, a explosion of icicles shook a hill, not to mention the rest of the ground, violently, tearing through the air around them with a deafening roar. The trio stopped quickly, and while Lloyd and Presea pointed excited at the mound from knowing what it was, Kratos' hand floated around his sword, confused as to what on earth had caused such a sudden explosion of ice mana. It almost looked like the work of Celsius…

"Celsius! End of World!" Lloyd yelled suddenly. Kratos swivelled around quickly to see what Lloyd was talking about. He turned to see Lloyd and Presea looking at each other and waving their arms about, yelling things at the top of their lungs.

"Celsius! End of… Aww you always, ALWAYS beat me to it…" Presea sighed, having spoken a split second after Lloyd. Presea stared at her feet, while Lloyd smiled and patted her on the back.

"What just happened?" Kratos asked indignantly. "There's an explosion and you two are cheering…"

"That was End of World. And I called it first, so I win the game." Lloyd explained. Kratos stared at the two dumbstruck.

"Me and Lloyd invented R.P.S. Ex as something to play while there was an argument in the group. With a group consisting of people as varied as the eight of us were, it wasn't surprising that we all had our differences. Me, Lloyd, Regal and Colette rarely argued -"

"Well, at least with each other. Me and Genis butted heads every now and then. well, a bit more often than 'every now and then'." Lloyd interrupted. Presea cleared her throat, getting ready to start again. "Oh, sorry Presea..."

"Carrying on, we rarely argued as much as the others. We all needed something to take our minds off it. Regal suggested a game, and then Colette suggested Rock – Paper – Scissors. However, that was boring, and difficult to play whilst walking." Presea continued.

"Your group argued while they walked?" Kratos asked quickly.

"Oh yeah. And while we were on the Rheairds. Now _those_ flights were always a lot more interesting than the others." Lloyd laughed. "The people of Flanoir still think the Giant Bird of Blue Something or Other is seeking revenge or something."

"It can't be. Yuan killed the Giant Bird of Blue Blizzards over 4000 years ago..." Kratos stated thoughtfully, remembering how the group had been cheated out of the rewards the townspeople had promised once they realised their heroes were half-elves.

"Yes, but many Flanoir residents have difficulties telling the difference between a frighting monster that has been extinct for several thousand years," Presea paused, then smirked, "and a bunch of Rheairds flying close together and at a dangerous low altitude. Not to mention erratically."

"Lloyd, I cannot tell a lie – I'm worried about leaving you with these people." Kratos laughed. Lloyd and Presea backed away uneasily from him, not used to a cheery Kratos. Suddenly, Lloyd caught the hidden meaning.

"What do you mean? You're not going anywhere, are you?" Lloyd questioned.

"Er, no..." Kratos replied awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head._"At least, not yet am I going anywhere..."_

"Good." Lloyd smiled.

"Hang on. You still haven't explained to me what that giant ice spear was all about." Kratos pointed over his shoulder. Lloyd and Presea looked at each other, then at Kratos. "What's with the funny faces?"

"There's no ice spear there. Sheena must have gotten Celsius to get rid of it or something." Lloyd shrugged.

"'End of World got its name from how arguments in this group tend to end. Which is explosively. One of the adults always lost their cool and unleashed some large spell or something similar to silence the group, which Lloyd and myself nicknamed 'End of World'."

"'Cause neither me nor Presea can use magic, but it's not like we've ever needed it. Oh, and each adult has a different 'End of World'. If it's Raine, then the last one standing for the oncoming lecture wins. Zelos, the last one to fall asleep from his speech on his brilliance wins." Lloyd explained. "And Sheena, well..."

"First to name the Summon Spirit and call 'End of World' wins. And that's usually Lloyd..." Presea huffed. Lloyd just wiped his nose proudly. Kratos couldn't quite believe what he was hearing – they had made a game out of the adults arguing and endangering each other?!

A call from the distance broke him out of his thoughts.

"Guys!"

The group turned around to see Sheena dragging a half-dead Zelos along behind her by his foot. As soon as she came level with the group, she dropped him in front of Kratos, brushed her hands and walked over to Lloyd.

"Miss me?" She winked. Lloyd stared at her for a while, then reached out for Sheena's hair.

"It looks nice down." Was his only comment before wondering over to the body previously known as Zelos.

"_Note to self: wear hair down more often."_ Sheena quickly decided before following him.

Zelos was still lying down on the floor, mumbling something about 'white scariness', which was probably about the small shards of ice decorating his body. He was holding his head and rocking about slightly. Presea couldn't help but notice that something looked kind of different.

"Zelos, did you change your hair?"

"No, Sheena did... And all I did was like it..." Zelos mumbled before carefully getting up onto his feet. Lloyd only had to take one look at his friend, with the short straight hair behind the long curly bangs, before bursting into uncontrollable laughter. Zelos grumbled, then pushed Lloyd out of the way and started walking, almost stomping with each step in the direction the group had originally been travelling in. Lloyd slowly stopped laughing, then ran up to join Zelos, who'd stopped at the top of a hill. When Lloyd stopped at the same place as Zelos, the group hurried to join him.

Finally, just beyond the hill, was the goal they'd bee searching for – Sybak.

The little academic town look as busy as ever, and who could blame them? The entire world's geography had jut changed, meaning maps were pretty rubbish, and a whole bunch of towns and landmarks they'd never even heard of had just cropped up in the middle of absolute nowhere, not to mention a ton of people with those towns.

"Now why am I not surprised that you lot are here after an ice pillar pierces the sky not too far away?" An unexpected voice asked. The group looked around to see Raine and Genis both standing at the bottom of the hill, just on the outskirts of Sybak. Lloyd waved.

"Hey you two! We came to find you!"

"Lloyd! You're awake!" Genis cried, running up to his friend as quickly as his little legs could take him. Lloyd jogged to meet him half way, and when they finally met, they gave each other a hi-five.

"Did you miss me?"

"Well I certainly didn't miss your snoring!" Genis laughed. Lloyd cringed. "Anyway, what was that giant ice thingy? Don't tell me I missed a game of R.P.S. Ex?" Lloyd nodded. "And it was Sheena with Celsius, right?"

"Yes, and Lloyd won, like normal." Presea pouted. Genis laughed, which upset Presea further. Realising his mistake, Genis turned around to Lloyd.

"You cheated, didn't you? Huh, huh?! Come on, spit it out!" Genis snapped, standing on his tippy toes to try and get some form of authority. Lloyd put his hand on Genis' head and pushed down to get him flat footed.

"And it's nice to see you too, Genis." Lloyd replied sarcastically, walking past him to talk to Raine.

"Good morning Sleeping Beauty." Raine greeted.

"Oh ha ha, very funny." Lloyd replied. "How are you?"

"I'm well. After the incident in Exire, me and Genis came here. We had nowhere better to go, and we thought we ought to avoid staying in Iselia for an extended period of time, what with all the mayoral problems. Which I feel me and Genis may have contributed to..." Raine sighed.

"No you haven't. You just didn't want to go there, because you didn't want to have to see Sleep-" Zelos started, but Raine violently slapped her hand over his mouth.

"Am I missing something here?" Lloyd wondered aloud, confused by what was going on.

"Two things, actually. One, Zelos was about to say something quite stupid. And two... C

an anyone else hear that noise?" Raine asked, still covering Zelos' mouth, despite his attempts to pull the teacher's hand away.

"Am I to assume you are referring to the rumbling coming from underground, Ms Sage?" Kratos replied, his hand wondering to his sword under subconscious orders.

"Yeah, I can hear it too... What is it?" Lloyd asked.

Zelos finally pulled Raine's hand away from his mouth. "I think I'm going deaf – what noise are you guys talking about?"

"Yeah, what noise?" Genis shouted. Everybody hushed him, causing him to flinch a little.

"I can't hear anything either..." Presea whined, putting her hands on either of her hips. Slowly, Zelos got on his hands and knees, and put his head against the floor, Genis and Presea eventually doing the same. Gradually, they could hear it, as though someone was pulling cotton wool out of their ears.

"It's getting ready to come above ground! Run!" Lloyd yelled, grabbing Presea's wrist and pulling her along with him since she was closest to him. A large circle of earth started to visibly vibrate, with small rocks flying through the air. The entire group retreated, readying their weapons for the inevitable fight when the monster reared its head.

Suddenly, the rocks flying around got bigger, ad before anyone could tell what was happening, a cloud of dust erupt from the circle, obscuring everyone's view. The dust remained in the air for at least half a minute. It wasn't very forceful, but it was enough to keep everybody rooted to the spot. Genis, however, lost his footing and landed with a bump of his behind.

"No way! You again? I thought Presea defeated you!?" Kratos's voice could be heard roaring through the sand storm.

"Kratos?! Who is it?" Raine called, trying to make herself heard above the sandstorm.

Suddenly, before anything else could happen, the cries of the Sylph could be heard. Within seconds the three fairies had tamed the sandstorm, allowing everybody to see again. Genis still kept his eyes shut, and somewhere to his left he could hear his older sister gasp loudly.

"Thanks, girls!" Sheena called to them. They waved to her quickly, then disappeared in blades of air. And that was when everybody else saw their visitor.

"Hey guys, I like, completely missed you!" A familiar voice called. Genis looked up, and couldn't quite believe his eyes. Still half-buried in the ground, a giant dragon was swaying slightly. The odd thing was, it looked as though it was made out of plants. On top of the dragon stood two figures – one with pink hair that looked remarkably like Presea, and a man who looked as though he was Zelos' twin.

"Oh great. Not you again, Aese..." Presea groaned, pulling the Gaia Cleaver a little closer to her side. Aese waved cheerfully in response.

"Ay-say?" Genis and Raine both asked at the same time.

"And this time, I've bought two like, completely new friends with me!" Aese cheered, waving her arm towards her companions. Sheena suddenly burst out laughing. "Hey, what is so like, completely funny?!"

"Zelos, look, you've got a new fan!" Sheena managed through her giggles. Zelos turned bright red.

"What?! Oh Sheena, please tell me that this is some kind of joke! You weren't being serious when you were talking about the whole 'male audience' stuff, were you?"

"No, actually..." Sheena sighed, then started laughing again. "Which is what makes this so funny!"

"I do believe I'm being made fun of..." Sole sighed.

"Um, excuse me, Aese and the Zelos fan?" Presea called up.

"I'm not... Argh!" Sole snapped back. "And the name's Sole! As in 'so-lay'."

"Hey, Aysay and Solay rhyme!" Lloyd laughed.

"And the fact you look an awful lot like Zelos doesn't help our opinions of you. Anyway..." Presea exhaled deeply, then began her question. "Aese, we fought only last night, and your shoulder is as good as new. How come?"

"Do you really want to know?" Sole asked. "Because this young lady," he replied, patting Aese on her head. "is stupid enough to fall for any trick that will give you the answer."

"Hey, I'm not like, completely stupid..." Aese whined, slapping Sole's hand off her head.

"So to avoid her humiliation, I'll just tell you instead." He paused, just to check he had everybody's attention. Well, he certainly had Aese's attention, as he had to clamp his hand over her mouth to calm her down. "We are made of plants."

Nobody had quite expected an answer along those lines.

Aese tore Sole's hand away violently. "What?! You just gave away like, completely gave away so much! Anee is going to like, completely lose it with you!" Aese screeched, elbowing Sole as hard as she could.

"'Anny'? Is Anny one of your subordinates?" Raine asked.

"Why? What's Captain Boring done now?" an unfamiliar voice called, its source unknown.

"Eep!" Aese squealed, turning around to look at the dragon's neck. From it, some of the vines extended, forming a human shaped plant. From several vines they all moulded into one big one, complete with vague features. The green skin peeled away, revealing a grumpy lady who looked a lot like Sheena.

"Hello Anee." Sole greeted calmly. "What brings you here?"

"Well, I would have expected by now that, what with the two of you going out on the mission, you would have been back now, with Lloyd in hand. I mean, I did make it clear that I felt the two of you would produce more results than just Pinky here." Anee replied angrily, tapping her wrist.

"Hey," Zelos shouted. "Are there going to be any more of you guys? Y'know, like, a Colette lookalike, and a Genis look-alike, etcetera, etcetera?"

"No, we're all there is. Well, for the moment." Anee replied.

"Wait, are you guys still trying to kidnap me?" Lloyd asked indignantly. To be honest, he was scared these plant people were some kind of overly – obsessive fan group.

"Uh, duh!" Anee replied, resting her head in her hand and her elbow in the other hand. "It seems I'm going to have to do things myself."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Wa-hey! Cliff hanger! What does Anee have planned? And what do they mean by 'for the moment'?

Hey, do you want to know what really helped me get back into this whole fic, not to mention the whole ToS scene? 'The World Ends With You' for the DS. And no, I can't remember the Japanese name. But the thing was, one of the main characters, Shiki, is voiced by Heather Hogan, who you may recognise as Colette's voice artist. They both have the exact same voice, but very different characters. And hearing Colette's voice saying 'Time to die!' a lot made me laugh. Anyhoo, TWEWY really helped me get back into ToS. Not to mention it's a great game to boot.

Unfortunately, it's still under Misc. Games here at FF. Net...

But again, sorry for this being late. I'll try and be better!


	9. Odd Blondes and Weird Baddies

Umm, Merry (late) Christmas? Sorry I haven't updated in a while coughitmighthavesomethingtodowiththefactthatNOBODYreviewedthepreviouschapteralthoughsomeonedidaddittotheirwatchthingythankyouforthatyayzcough Anyhoo, the next chapter of 'Stupid Little Tree'.

Btw, everyone do me a favour if you come from the USA or Japan or somewhere that has Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World: because ToS: DotNW has not (and may not) come out here in Europe (England specifically) I don't want to hear **ANYTHING** about it, okay. No spoilers, no plotlines, no **NOTHING**, just in case someone at Namco takes pity on us peoples over in Europe (though yes, I do know about the Lloyd and Decus thingy).

* * *

Sheena sat up straight quickly from lying down, then quickly wished she hadn't, as she felt dizzy and light-headed. Falling gently back down, she started at the ceiling and let her mind wonder.

Hang on. Ceiling? What happened to the sky and being outside?!

"Sheena! Wakey wakey, eggs and ba-omph!!"

"Finish that stupid sentence, Zelos, and I'll punch you again even harder." Sheena threatened, removing her fist from his face.

"...key..." Zelos mumbled before slumping back into the chair he had presumably been sitting in earlier and vaguely trying to shield his face.

Sheena looked around the room she was in. She recognised this place – this was the Infirmary in the Royal Academy at Sybak, although what they were doing there was beyond her. She was lying in a small narrow bed – fully clothed, thank whoever's up there – that had been positioned against a wall. Next to her, Zelos was slouched in a chair, trying to readjust his nose, and there was a small bedside table with a little lamp that was turned on. Along the wall there where similar beds lined up against in, and, on the nearer beds, her friends were sat staring at her blankly. Even Colette and Regal were there. Sheena wondered briefly when they had arrived and how long she'd been unconscious for.

"Yup, Sheena's alright." Genis stated, sitting on the end of her bed. "By the way, did you have the weird dream about conga dancing and Colette and Regal as clowns?" Sheena thought back a little, then cringed and nodded. Almost simultaneously, the entire group then turned their heads away from Sheena to concentrate on a piece of paper on the next bed. Kratos was writing on it, and Raine looked as though she was constantly trying to snatch it off of him.

"Professor, Kratos can't finish the map if you snatch it off him..." Colette pleaded. Sheena groaned, that voice being one she hadn't missed. Colette heard her, and shot Sheena an evil look. Sheena rolled her eyes in response. Zelos noticed this, and elbowed Sheena to get her attention, then lowered his hands palms down, motioning to cool it before anything kicked off.

"But Colette, think about the possibilities this map holds! And it's coming from someone who lived so long ago, and besides...." Raine carried on, unaware of the growing lack of interest in what she was saying.

"Suddenly, I feel very old." Kratos sighed dejectedly. Regal patted him on the back.

"Don't worry; you get very used to it when you're with these guys long enough." Regal said quietly.

"Yes, but even so, I'm 4,000 odd years older than you, the next oldest person here." Kratos replied dourly. Regal grinned awkwardly, then shuffled over to talk to Sheena. Kratos sighed gloomily, then turned his attention back to the map, which Raine was currently smothering.

"Hey Regal," Sheena started. Regal nodded. "When did you and Colette get here? And what day is this? And how did we get in Sybak? And, and… And thinking about it…" She quietened down. "Where's Lloyd?" Regal sighed deeply, then started

"To the first one, I got here about four hours ago, and Colette shortly after me. In case you're curious, it's about 7pm now."

"What?! How long have I been asleep?" Sheena shrieked. Regal put his hand up, and Sheena noticed he had taken his shackles off.

"I'm not too sure. Anyway, carrying on, it's still Tuesday…"

"I'm fairly sure it was Monday a minute ago…?" Sheena mumbled to herself. "Geez, I've been out for ages."

"…And some students from Sybak heard the explosion and came to investigate it. They apparently thought you were aliens from a falling star for a while. The explosion may have given them that idea, as well as the crater you were found near."

Sheena swept the covers off of her bed and jumped on top of it in one smooth movement. "A CRATER?!" What the hell happened?! And where's Lloyd?!" she yelled desperately, waving the duvet in her hand crazily. Everybody panicked, trying to calm her down and bring her off the bed before she hurt herself. However, Colette stayed where she was, calmly facing the wall.

"You lost him, because you're a really rubbish girlfriend." She coldly stated. Sheena stopped completely.

"Excuse me?"

"I said you lost him. Because you're a failure." Colette calmly repeated, with a small smile forming on her lips. Everyone slowly turned around to look at Colette.

"Umm, Colette, you feeling alright?" Genis asked nervously.

"No, not really. I'm worried out of my head because Melon Chest lost Lloyd." She replied icily.

"Hey, hey, hey, my little Colette! Just because you're worried doesn't mean you can be mean to Sheena." Zelos chuckled uneasily. "We're all friends here, right? Hehehe eep."

"Whatever. I'm off to look for him. Later, losers…" Colette replied. As she walked towards the door, Zelos stepped in the way.

"Hey, when we lose someone, it's best for us to all stick--" Coolly, Colette picked Zelos up by the shoulder of his jacket, and threw him over her shoulder. While everybody else rushed to make sure Zelos was alright, Colette slipped unnoticed out of the door.

"Umm, are you… alright, Zelos?" Presea asked cautiously.

"Yeah... Because that wasn't _at all_ weird, was it? I'm sure Colette is an absolute bitch _all_ the time..." Zelos sarcastically laughed, scratching his head, just as dumbfounded as everybody else in the room. "And do I have a piece of paper on my back saying 'beat me up or something?" he asked, twisting and trying to look at his back.

"No…" Presea replied, patting his back to check for invisible paper too.

"Presea, it's an expression. There isn't any paper on his back…" Sheena sighed. Presea nodded, then slapped Zelos' back, just to make sure. Zelos wheezed, which prompted Sheena giggled, and Zelos shot her a sour look, which she pretended not to notice.

"So, who's up for a Colette hunt?" Zelos asked grimly.

"Err, I don't know…" Genis hesitated, "I think we ought, because she's our friend…"

"Correction: she's your friend." Sheena interrupted.

"Okay," Genis hesitated, "show of hands who wants to find Colette?" Raine and Regal both wavered, then slowly put their hands up. "Now show of hands who would rather look for Lloyd?" Everybody out their hands up, including Genis. Raine and Regal kept theirs up.

"Let's go go go, then! We're going on a road trip, we're going on a road trip, do-dah, do-dahhhh... Going to meet lots of exotic women while saving our friend, do-dah, do-dah... And we might rescue Lloyd, wherever he is, do-dah, do-dah..." Zelos began singing tunelessly. Sheena tapped the back of his head for the second line, while the rest of the group headed towards the door. Zelos rubbed the back of his head and grinned, then turned to join the others.

"Zelos, do you have to sing? Besides, that song made no sense." Sheena sighed. Zelos turned and nodded.

"Well, if Lloyd's not here, someone has to play the loveable idiot, right?" Sheena twitched. "Oh, hey now, Sheena, y_ukkuri shiteitte ne..._ Pretty good, eh?" Sheena twitched more, then leapt on top of Zelos and grabbed his throat.

"You did not just try and speak Japanese, did you?! That was really bad!" Sheena paused. "Hang on, 'yukkuri shiteitte ne' translates to... Did you just tell me to take it easy?! That's it – you die now!"

* * *

Lloyd sat up quickly. That dream had been way too vivid. Some Sheena look-alike had drugged everybody, apart from Colette and Regal. And there was a dragon thing, and then everybody was dancing the conga while Colette and Regal were dressed up as clowns. And then everything got eaten by that dragon.

Nice.

Lloyd looked around. He was in an extravagant and large bed, with green silk sheets and more pillows than he could count. The walls were grey stone, and the ceiling was up quite high. Green curtains decorated the room, and, opposite the bed was a large wooden door. His bodily felt heavy, and he wondered how long he had been asleep.

"Aah! I can't get up!" He cried a little louder than he would have liked to. He sighed in defeat, and then stretched his arms out. He remembered something Sheena had once said about stretching, but he couldn't remember what it was. "Well, I probably would have remembered it if it was important..." Lloyd mused aloud. Irritated, Lloyd laid back down on his side, then pulled the covers up around him, even though it was probably a bad idea to hang around a strange place like the one he was in.

"Good morning." Lloyd turned his head to see Sheena by the door.

"Sheena? You've come to rescue me?" 'Sheena stared blankly back at him. Lloyd heaved himself into an upright position so he could see better.

"Try again, genius." Her voice was different. It sounded like Sheena's, but it didn't at the same time. Lloyd sat with his mouth hanging open, trying to formulate a sentence. "Never mind. I just hope Dyol doesn't get any intelligence problems from you..."

"'Dyol'? Where've I heard that before?"

"Probably from Aese. She's such an idiot." the lady smirked.

"Hey, you're that Sheena look-alike... Annie?"

"Give the idiot a pat on the back. That's me, alright." Anee laughed. "Though you're probably thinking of the wrong spelling..." Lloyd tilted his head in confusion. "But that doesn't matter. Now, if you would be so kind as to come with me, I need your help conquering the world and destroying all non-plant life. After all, I did have to come out and capture you myself..." Anee held her hand out, gesturing for Lloyd to come with her.

"E-excuse me?! I don't think so!" Lloyd yelled, feeling the anger rise in him. "First you kidnap me, then you ask me to help with a massacre? Dream on..." Lloyd jumped on top of the bed and reached for one of his swords. They weren't there.

"Don't tell me you thought we wouldn't disarm or restrain you or something... Especially after the little fight we had. Mind you, you guys are pretty dangerous drugged up on, unfortunately-not-working-properly sleeping spores. It took Aese half an hour to catch you." Anee smirked as Lloyd wobbled and fell back down onto the bed.

"Um, I had hoped, but only Cruxis is really that stupid, I guess... Mind you, it was cool watching Regal fire that beam thingy." Lloyd sighed as it suddenly became very hard to left his head. "What the hell did you... do... to me..."

"What, the spores or your current condition? Because the spores sent you guys nuts until it actually knocked you out like it was meant to. It was very funny." Anee smirked. "Thankfully, we were eventually able to capture you once all of you drifted off to sleep. We didn't want any resistance in your capture from anybody."

"Yeah, that's nice. So you drugged us? Is that why it currently hurts to move?" Lloyd snapped.

"Check your left hand. Y'know, the one where you wear that bauble..."

"Don't you dare call her that..." Lloyd growled weakly, struggling to raise his hand up to his chest. Upon closer inspection, he noticed a silver shackle encasing all of his hand save his fingers. His Crystal was completely hidden. "What the hell is that...?"

"We don't have a name for it really. I think Sole might call it something, seeing as he made it. But basically, it's drawing your strength out whenever we ask, through the use of this," Anee waved a small device with a red button, which was currently clicked down with a red light on just beneath it. "so at the moment, you're our little portable battery. It's pulling the energy out through your bauble." Lloyd could do nothing but growl feebly as Anee waved the device around in front of his face.

"So you kidnapped me so I could be a battery?" Lloyd laughed weakly. "Thanks!"

"No, we have bigger plans for you than that. Well, bigger plans involving you. When we're done with you, you'll probably screw our plans right up by just existing, so we'll probably have to dispose of you somehow afterwards..." Any ideas, Aese?"

"Like, completely nothing..." Aese sighed. Lloyd yelped at the surprise appearance. "Anyway, Anee, I'm here because you called me, even though I was like, completely on a coffee break."

"Aese, we don't have any coffee..."

"Anee, it was an expression of speech, in case you didn't like, completely guess." Aese replied incredulously. Anee slapped her over the back of her head.

"I know that, you idiot. I was just concerned you actually had been drinking coffee, because quite frankly, nobody has any idea what the heck caffeine could do to someone like you." Anee replied, while patting Aese on the head. Aese smiled widely and looked up at Anee. "What? Please don't look at me like that. You're the top muscle, and we'd have difficulties without you." Aese smile faded, and was replaced with an irritated expression. She sighed, and turned, stopping Anee and Lloyd from being able to see her face.

"What did you want me for, Anee?" She asked dejectedly. She gasped when she realised she missed a key phrase.

"Add in anything revolving around 'like' and 'completely' and I will hit you. Very very VERY hard. Oh yes, I almost forgot. I need you to move Lloyd for me. And before you ask, take him to Sole's chamber. I think he needed something from him. When Sole's finished with him, put him down in one of the cells." Aese nodded, and walked over to the bed. Before he could put up any protest, Lloyd was hoisted over Aese's shoulder.

"How the hell are you doing this? I'm nearly twice the size of you!!" Lloyd whined, confused how this small girl was holding him up. Her head tilted slightly towards him, and he felt her shrug, before she set off towards the door.

"Oh, and Aese?" Anee called, prompting Aese to turn around and face her. "She's still out, albeit coming back, and, although I told her to go straight to her room when she does come back, don't let Lloyd see You-Know-Who." Aese made a confused noise. "Blondey, perhaps, Brain Cell?" Aese nodded.

"Who?" Lloyd asked, flailing. He felt Aese shift him, and his balance go out the window. The pair of them fell over.

"I don't care how you get him there, but just DO IT, AESE!"


	10. Scared Students and Smothering Pom Poms

stares blankly at someone179 Did you get a hold of my notes or something? You figured out something I hadn't even gotten to in this story! How the hell did you notice it! I kept it as quiet and discreet as possible! runs around in circles screaming Well, whatever you did, you get a cookie. And no, it's not ready to be revealed yet (chapter after this or next chapter after that I think)

btw, there's been a tweak added for Chapter 10, as killerbunbun pointed out I kind of forgot to add how Lloyd had been kidnapped and how everyone else wound up at Sybak. If you want to find out how, you can pop back and find out, but, in case you want to jump straight to that part, it's towards the bottom where Lloyd and Anee are having a conversation.

* * *

Some days, Zelos really really questioned why he travelled around with a bunch of idiots. Really REALLY questioned why.

This was one of those days.

"So, umm, where we going again?" Zelos asked loudly in a whiney voice, swinging his arms back and forth while he walked.

"Zelos, if I have to answer that question one more time, I swear I'll--" Sheena started, clenching her fist.

"We're headed to the area the students from Sybak found us, to try and find Lloyd." Raine interrupted, swiftly moving herself between the two.

"Oh yeah, how could I forget Professor? Maybe because this is the complete wrong direction?!" Zelos snapped loudly, walking over to the two students guiding them. "Seriously, where the hell are you two leading us? And how the hell did you get into the Royal Academy with map-reading skills like this?! We are well, and truly, and completely, not to mention truly lost thanks to you two!" The two students, a young couple from the group that discovered the party and who also happened to be hanging around the plaza with nothing better to do, cowered in absolute fear under Zelos.

"We're sorry, Chosen, we didn't mean to get lost!" The female wailed, huddling in fear against her boyfriend. She had pale pink hair, tied up in bunchies. She wore the standard Sybak girls uniform, albeit with a worrying amount of pink accessories to decorated it.

"It's just that, this map is really hard to read! Whoever drew might have been a bit drunk!" The male added, cuddling his girlfriend protectively. He had dark blue hair, almost purple, and he also wore the standard uniform, minus the accessories. Raine walked over and took the map from him and began examining it. Genis also joined her, standing on his tip-toes to be able to see it.

"I was not!" Kratos shouted, followed with a hiccup. "Honest..." The couple looked at him confusedly, then turned back to Zelos, who was developing a murderous glint in his eye. They huddled together even closer.

"Please calm down Zelos, it isn't that bad..." Presea said gently, grabbing one of his arms and slowly pulling him back. He did try and resist, but Presea was a lot stronger than him, and easily overpowered him.

"Not that bad? We're on top of the freaking Fooji Mountains, THE FOOJI MOUNTAINS, and the only one who knows his way around this stupid hybrid world is drunk!" Zelos cried, waving his arms around.

"No, I'm just a little tipsy is all..." Kratos interjected indignantly, waving his finger. "I was worried about... Lloyd... hic..."

"Zelos, I think it would help if you calmed down." Regal gently suggested. "Worrying will no help anything."

"I'm only freaking out because Raine is too busy looking at that map to question our situation!"

"Lloyd..." Kratos started wailing, falling to his knees and punching the ground. "Please don't worry, I'll hic find you! I think..."

"And to top it off, Kratos is a little more than freaking tipsy. Brilliant. We're doomed... All doomed!" Zelos cried, joining Kratos on the ground.

"Oh, for Pete's sake, get a hold of yourself, Zelos!" Sheena yelled, kicking him in the ribs.

"Ow! What was that for? And why did you only kick me and not Kratos too?" Zelos yelped in reply. Sheena crouched and began to whisper.

"Uh, Zelos, in case you forgot, he's a 4000 year old angel who used to rank high up in an organization that split the world in two. That alone makes me nervous. Now, let's add in the fact he's drunk and a little unpredictable, and crying because Lloyd's missing, the same Lloyd who is his son who he thought was dead until recently. Would you like to kick Kratos?" Zelos contemplated this for a brief moment, then shook his head nervously. Sheena stood up. "Knew you'd see it my way."

"I've got it!" Raine suddenly cried, holding the map aloft in one hand, causing Genis to promptly fall over. "Oh, sorry Genis."

"Don't worry about it..." Genis grumbled, getting up and dusting himself. "It's not like it makes me feel short or anything... So, what did you figure out?"

"I found where we are!" Raine exclaimed.

"Er, I don't know, the Fooji Mountains?" Zelos replied. Everybody stared at him. "What? I was just saying..."

"Anyway, I think I can read this map. It took some thought, but I believe I understand it. The fact I saw Kratos while he was drawing it helped. I managed to follow his actions, though I did think they were sloppy."

"You're sloppy!" Kratos yelled back. He was sat cross-legged with his back to the group, pointing in the direction opposite the group. He suddenly twitched. "I'm sorry..." Everyone tried to ignore him.

"Umm," the girl asked nervously, "is he the one who drew the map?" Presea nodded, causing the girl to panic and run over to him. "Oh gracious Martel! I didn't mean to upset you about the map! Please don't cry, mister!" She knelt down in front of him. Kratos just turned around and sulked like a little child. The student opened her mouth to say something, but Raine interrupted her.

"Don't pay him any attention, he's just being childish. Anyway, if we could back to discussing our location, please?"

"Oh yeah. What did you find, Raine?" Zelos asked hopefully.

"Our location. Basically, I think I can recognise the shapes of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla in this, um, map. We're here." She pointed to the map. "And Sybak is here." She added, trailing her finger along the map south-westwards. She then turned to the male student, who had escaped from Zelos. "Now, what direction did you say you had found us? From Sybak, that is."

"Er, west. But according to that map, we've gone north-east. But I could have sworn..." He paused to rummage around in his pockets, and pulled out a small metal compass. He looked at it for a moment, with his expression changing from confusion to curiosity to absolute terror. "My compass has completely lost it."

"What do you mean?" His girlfriend asked jokingly, leaning on his shoulder.

"I mean that it can't decide where we are! It's going all over the place!" He showed the compass to Raine. Indeed, it was going crazy, pointing up, then down, then to the side, before spinning around several times. "I don't want to be the bearer of bad news, but we're lost..." Zelos flipped.

"Way to go genius!" Zelos moaned. Sheena smacked him over the head.

"You do not have to be so snarky, Zelos." Sheena snapped. She turned around to face the others. "What do you think we should do, guys? I would call some friends, but Mizuho's having navigation problems, too."

"You're from Mizuho? Oh Martel, she's a ninja!" The male student gasped. "Cool..."

"Damn..." Sheena sighed, "I finally find a Tethe'allan who likes Mizuho, and I'm going to have to wipe his memory."

"You'll have to wipe his memory anyway. I have an idea." Raine announced. Everybody turned and faced her with interest. "But, I'm not too sure if it'll work..." she added, worriedly.

"Why?" Regal asked. "And why do we have to have their memories wiped?"

"Because Kratos is going to fly up and find out where Sybak is." Everyone stared at Raine for a few seconds, totally bewildered, then turned to look at Kratos, who was still sat on the floor.

"Umm, Sis? Have you gone insane?" Genis shouted. Raine nodded. "He's drunk, in case you hadn't noticed?" Raine nodded again, with a crafty smile on her face. She pointed at Zelos.

"I also noticed something else. You're still wearing your Cruxis Crystal, correct?" Zelos nodded nervously, suddenly picking up where Raine was going with this. "So shouldn't you have—"

"Yes, I do!" Zelos snapped, causing everybody nut Raine to jump, knowing she had succeeded. "But I... I didn't want to tell anyone."

"Tell anyone that....?" Raine pressured.

"Geez, someone's in one of their mean moods, aren't they? O.K., I'll talk, I'll talk..." Zelos retorted, his cheeks turning bright red. "I... kinda have sparkly angel wings too. There, are you happy now?" Everyone stared at him in total disbelief for a few moments, until Sheena burst out laughing. "What's so funny?!"

"Your expression..." Sheena giggled, trying to calm down. "Oh, I get it." She turned to Raine. "You want Zelos to go up there with him..." Raine nodded.

Suddenly, it dawned on everybody what Raine's plan had been. Kratos was already standing with his wings out, prompting the two students to try and get a look. While they were busy examining the pair of blue wings, the others turned to watch Zelos, who reluctantly and embarrassedly revealed his own orange wings, with an "Ooooh" from Presea. Raine pointed upwards, towards the sky, and grudgingly, Zelos grabbed Kratos' wrist and dragged him skywards.

"Oh Martel, you're heavy… I'd have thought that you'd go on a Weight Watchers programme at some point during 4000 years of living! And you're flying, too! How can you be so heavy when you're supporting your own weight as well?!" Zelos screeched, struggling to hold Kratos as they drifted slowly upwards. Zelos was pretty sure his own wings wouldn't take it, while Kratos' looked like they were as drunk as their owner.

"I'm so sorry…" Kratos wailed weakly.

"Why am I up here anyway?" Zelos half shouted, half asked Kratos, he merely shrugged in reply. "Maybe because you're too drunk to be trusted with recon?!" Zelos yelled back.

"Hey Zelos, we can hear you whinging from down here! Shut up and get on with it!" He could faintly hear Sheena yell from below them. Zelos sighed, and started to look around.

"I want to go back down…" Kratos whined. Zelos rolled his eyes in disbelief.

"Who'd Sheena call the whiney one again?" Zelos sighed, carelessly letting go of Kratos so he could cross his arms in frustration. This clearly caught Kratos off-guard, as he fell for a couple of meters before catching himself and slowly floating back up to the same height as Zelos. Not to mention with a stupid look on his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but Zelos immediately placed his hand over Kratos' mouth in order to silence him. "Believe me Kratos, I don't want to know."

"But I saw a Rheaird…" He moaned, like a small child denied a sweet. "And Yuan was on it." Zelos did a double-take.

"Where? Rheairds? Brilliant!" Zelos frantically searched around in the air for the blue-haired half elf, but didn't see him getting very close and with brake problems until he was too late. Kratos merely moved out the way, while Zelos got a close look of what the underside of a Rheaird looked like.

"Umm, oops." Yuan apologized, watching Zelos plummet towards the ground, his wings gone. Luckily, Sheena had reacted quickly, as Zelos was quickly caught by all three of the Sylph. Yuan watched as he conversed with them while they flew gently towards the ground. Until Zelos appeared to offend them, when they decided them to drop him the rest of the way instead.

"Y halo thar…" Kratos said suddenly in a strange voice, which made Yuan jump. Yuan leant over and immediately drew his head back.

"You've been drinking, haven't you?" Yuan snarled, angry.

"Umm, noo…." Kratos replied innocently, trying to hide his hiccups, which had returned with the worst timing possible. Yuan continued to stare at him, knowing that a drunken Kratos would easily break under his gaze, while a sober one would quickly ram his sword through Yuan's face. "I'm so sorry!" Kratos burst out suddenly, clinging unto Yuan. "I lost Lloyd…" Yuan sighing, and grabbed hold of his friend's wrist, expertly piloting the Rheaird downwards.

"How did you guess? No-one else did." Kratos asked.

"In case you forgot, angels have a better sense of smell. And besides, I've known you for over 4000 years, and I would hope to be able to see if my friend was drunk after that amount of time… Besides, you haven't touch alcohol for over decade, since the whole Lloyd and Anna incident. Why did you start again?!"" Yuan replied as they landed, causing Kratos to twitch. Before Yuan could ask, he was interrupted.

"Umm, excuse me, Yuan, but what are you doing here?" Raine asked, tilting her head.

"Our radars picked up those two," he started, gesturing towards Zelos and Kratos, who was currently sat in mid-air with his legs crossed, back to the group again, "floating around randomly. I knew something was wrong. Umm, and those two are…?" he asked, pointing to the two students currently trying to hide behind Regal. Sheena opened her mouth to answer, but Zelos beat her to it with his own comment.

"Crappy tour guides."

"They're two students from Sybak, and together we're all a bit lost…" Sheena laughed weakly, suddenly feeling very hopeless. "We kind of lost Lloyd to this group of look-alikes. At least, we're pretty sure they've taken him."

"So we went to try and find him." Presea interrupted.

"If he's not with them, we at least have to take care of the imposters. They don't seem too benevolent…" Regal added. Yuan nodded.

"I thought something was up… Kratos drinking is usually a very bad sign indeed... Here." He handed Raine a Wing Pack. "The Rheairds are in there."

"Thank you very much."

"Oh, and if Kratos is, ummm…" he added, turning to look at him, who hadn't moved, "…then you might need this…" He said, handing them a map. "When the worlds reunited, we quickly sent out scouts to make new maps. We mass-produced once we had it correct, and this is one of them. It's made based on observations, and what I can remember for the finer details. Go find Lloyd."

"Thank you, Yuan." Genis cheered, snatching the Wing Pack from his sister. He opened it, and nine Rheairds appeared.

"Nine?" Regal asked. Yuan nodded.

"I was unsure of how many there were of you, so I decided to be safe rather than sorry. Put the other Rheairds away, the others can ride them when you find them." Genis quickly did so, putting two of the Rheairds away. Everyone mounted a Rheaird, apart from Kratos and the students. However, since he still had his wings out, Zelos merely tied Kratos to his own Rheaird, which would allow him to drift alongside.

"Hey, what about us?" the girlfriend snapped indignantly.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot." Sheena jumped off of the Rheaird, pulling two spell cards out from her obi. She walked over to the two students, and attached the cards to each of their foreheads. "Yuan, those cards will knock those two out and wipe their memories of today, then burn themselves up when they're finished as a safety measure. You couldn't drop them back to Sybak for us? Thanks!" Sheena yelled, hopping back onto her Rheaird and flying off with everybody else before Yuan could object.

* * *

Some days, Aese really questioned why she did her job. Really REALLY questioned why.

This was one of those days.

"Y'know, you remind me a lot of Presea, err, what was your name again?"

She knew what her role was in the whole Master Plan. Not that she was entirely happy with it. She was physically the strongest of the three, the brute force. Then Sole was brains, which meant he had some dignity, or at least more than Aese. Then Anee was the master mind, which seemed to mean that she was allowed to bully Aese. And then, when he came, Dyol would be...

"Aese." She replied huffily, her usual perkiness totally gone. She had pretty much lost the will to live. Combined with Anee's abuse and this idiot dressed in red, she was pretty much at the end of her tether. That and the fact she had to carry this moron over her shoulder down to perhaps the second biggest jerk in this plan. Well, not so much her shoulder anymore.

"Umm, I know you're grumpy and stuff, but please, do you have to drag me along the floor much longer? My chest hurts, and my face is..." Lloyd begged, hitting his chin on another stray rock poking out of the otherwise grassy ground. Due to some power restrictions, Lloyd was reduced to whining if he wanted anything. Not that he was likely to get it.

"What gave you the hint?" she grumbled, coming to a stop and tossing his feet, which she had been dragging him by, to the floor. "If it's that much of a problem, then..." She flipped him onto his back, grabbed one of his knees and began dragging him along in said fashion. "Are you happy now?" Needless to say, this was even more uncomfortable than the previous position.

"I'm afraid you'll hurt me more if I say... What happened to your love of the word completely?" Lloyd asked, trying to lift his head a little, hoping it wouldn't hurt too much if he found another rock.

"Humph. Sixteen years of minimal speech gets you talking only so much..."

"Sixteen years? Is that how old you are?" Lloyd asked. "You look a lot younger." He added cheerfully, trying to be nice.

"Not exactly. You've sort of misunderstood me. And besides, you weren't meant to hear that." She snapped back in reply. "But y'know what, at the moment, I pity you, so maybe I'll talk."

"Umm, I don't want to be mean or ungrateful, but could you stop dragging me on the floor instead?"

"No!" she replied. "This stops you talking all the time. You give me a headache." She stopped walking, and turned her head to look at Lloyd. He was staring back at her, with a pathetically confused look on his face. She started walking again. "Well, if you really want to know… I'm incredibly young, actually. But I'm not telling you how young, because that _is_ a secret. I'm older than I look, though in a way, I'm actually a lot older than I look."

"I've got it! You must be the head of a fan club for Presea!" Lloyd cheered.

"Excuse me?"

"Well, you look like her, you sound like her, you're as strong as her…" Lloyd started. "You use an Axe to fight like her, as well. Hey, thinking about it, Anee's a lot like Sheena, too." Aese stared at him for a moment, worried.

"Whatever." She dismissed. "We're here."

"We're where?" Lloyd asked, looking at the large door they were standing by.

"Sole's lab. He needed to borrow you for a few minutes. Not sure what for. Nobody tells me nothing." She sulked. Lloyd couldn't help but feel sorry for her, despite the fact she just dragged him across the floor with no remorse whatsoever. Lloyd watched carefully as she took several deep breaths and shook her limbs a little. Suddenly, she snapped into a more upright position. Suddenly, she shouted at the door. "Sole, I've like, completely brought him so you can open the door!" Her perky attitude had recovered, and was back in full force, if the last sentence was anything to go by. Lloyd didn't dare to question it, for fear of being smothered with pompoms or something.

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Umm, not much to say down here this time. Just remember, check Chapter 10 if you want to. Unless you started reading this after this chapter was published, in which case, the change will be there already.


	11. Fuzzy Sights and Windy Holes

Um, another round of no reviews? Why? Please, dear audience, if I do something wrong in my stories, then review and let me know. It makes me really worried when I don't get even a negative review. Reviews spur me on to hurry up and complete the next chapter. And I'm sure you guys can appreciate how nice it is to receive reviews, especially from those who placed the story on their alert thingy... So, please guys?

Besides, I think you must have noticed this by now, but I tend to take a veeeeeeery long time to update when I don't get reviews.

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When Aese opened the door, Lloyd realised that this room was cold. There were vines for walls, just like the other ten million walls in this weird place, but this room was colder than the others. Lloyd's view, however, was restricted, to the ceiling and the tops of the walls, as well as the tops of some strange looking machines which clambered up the walls and some of which even went through the ceiling. Before he could ask where he was exactly, Aese dragged him along his back into the centre of the room. Being totally unable to do anything about his current situation, he sighed in defeat, and tried to ignore the pain.

"Hey Sole, I like, completely brought him over, like you asked." Aese chirped brightly, prompting Sole to jump slightly, having not noticed the pair come in. He realised that he had lost his train of thought, and that his experiment would now have to be started all over again. Not that it would be a problem after the Plan worked. He would have as much time as he wanted then. So, this time, he would just let it go.

"Thanks. Just put him there. I need to tidy up a little and get something ready." He said, gesturing to the corner while he turned around again to tidy up. Aese did as she was told, putting Lloyd down roughly in a sitting position. However, due to the exhaustion brought on from the device around his hand, he just flopped to the floor like a doll. He struggled to get up back into an upright position. When he did, he got a better view of the lab. There were several machines attached to the walls. Most of them had screens on them, reporting the status of various things, but a couple caught Lloyd's eye: a group of several machines in the opposite corner, all of them covered with a sheet. The other, however, was a large stasis tube, filled with a shimmering icy blue liquid, and several wires floating freely, the ends of which disappeared into a console on the outside of the tube.

Feeling that her job was done, Aese dusted her hands and made to leave to room, but Sole stopped her. "Hang on a sec, where do you think you're going, young lady? You're taking him to the cell afterwards." He reminded, crossing his arms, relishing the chance to make Aese feel stupid.

"What? Cell?" Lloyd cried suddenly, falling over from making the sudden outburst. Sole just nodded in reply, a small smile that could only be noticed by an angel forming on his lips. Lloyd opened his mouth to say something back, but Sole interrupted him.

"Please, don't bother. You shouldn't really waste your energy by calling me names or anything at the moment. Though please do feel free to call Aese whatever you like. Since we can drain your energy as easily as turning on a tap."Sole smirked, waving a small device identical to the one Anee had earlier, also with a red light on. "In case you were wondering, in drains the energy through..."

"Sole, we know like, completely know that already. Just like, completely get to the point already, Sole!" Aese interrupted, poking her tongue out at the same time. Sole merely rolled his eyes and crossed his arms, his already low patience with Aese running thin.

"If you want a name for it, I suppose you could call it the..." he paused for a moment, and stroked his chin. "Bauble Battery? Yes, I like the sound of that." Lloyd's face turned red.

"They aren't baubles!" he snapped. "They're...they're peo...ple..." Lloyd could feel all his energy draining at an even facer pace than it had been earlier. Sole merely waved the control device around.

"Don't lose your temper with me."He replied coolly. "You can barely even stand at the moment. You'd have no chance whatsoever if it came to a fight right now."

"I... I hate... you..." Lloyd panted, straining to keep eye contact with Sole. Lloyd could feel sweat running down his brow now, and his head was light. He was getting dizzier with each passing second, but even the seconds were dragging along.

"Aese hates me too, but you don't see me losing any sleep over it, do you?" Sole smirked, causing Aese to poke her tongue out again, this time even longer and with her hands around her ears. He opened a drawer and rummaged through it for a moment, searching for something, but Lloyd couldn't see what. He tried shifting himself so that he was leaning against the wall more, hoping it would be more comfortable, but with each effort he made, he just felt weaker and weaker, and his vision was turning fuzzy and black around the edges. It was starting to hurt to breathe, as well.

"Sole, I think you might like, completely want to stop draining him now..." Lloyd could make out the shape and pink hair of Aese coming over to him and crouching down beside him. Something suddenly waved in front of his vision, but he didn't have the energy to visibly acknowledge it. "He's not like, completely responding too much... Sole!"

"Fine..." Sole sighed, reluctantly pressing the button, causing the red light to slowly flicker off. "Though you know I can't restore his strength; that has to recover naturally." Aese nodded, strangely relieved. Was she happy Lloyd would be alright or something?

Suddenly, Lloyd noticed a ringing noise in his ears stop. He hadn't even noticed it before, but it was soon replaced by an overwhelming nauseous feeling. Knowing he was at the mercy of Aese and Sole, and that he was really weak, Lloyd resigned himself to sitting where he was while 'his strength recovered naturally', as Sole had put it. Hopefully, just hopefully, maybe they'd leave him alone long enough for him to fully recuperate, though there was more chance of Efreet successfully making a snowman. He considered going to sleep seeing as he was so tired, though, being in a room with two of his three kidnappers, he realised this was probably a very bad idea. He managed to make out the shape of Sole walk over to him.

"Now don't worry, this will only hurt for a moment..." Sole's voice cooed mockingly, though Lloyd couldn't quite tell whether or not it was coming from Sole in his current state. He felt his glove get taken off and his sleeve rolled up. There was a brief pause, and then Lloyd suddenly a sharp pain near the fold between his upper and lower arm. However, he couldn't make out what exactly it was, other than it was sharp. Before he knew it, the darkness previously gnawing the edges of his vision intensified, and he was out cold.

* * *

"This is the place. I can remember it." Raine loudly stated. Standing with her staff in one hand and the other hand proudly on her hip, she looked like some kind of intrepid explorer who had just discovered a new world wonder.

Well, okay, a giant hole.

But it was an out-of-the-ordinary giant hole in the middle of nowhere that certainly hadn't been there the day before. Or any time before that.

"Yeah, this place does look right. My memory's still a bit fuzzy, but, yeah..." Genis added, joining his sister in the pose of triumph, only minus any form of weaponry.

The hole was pretty large, though maybe not quite large enough to fit a Rheaird in. It was actually surprising that nobody from Sybak was flocking around it and preparing explorations and such. Mind you, if the boyfriend's compass had been acting anything like of compasses would be, any exploration team was probably hopelessly lost by now, which is likely what had happened.

Sheena gazed down. The hole was pretty deep, but it was on a slope, meaning that it would be easy to climb down into, and maybe only slightly difficult to get out from again if you had a limp or something similar. If she was with someone from Mizuho, this hole would have been easy to investigate, but she had to consider the fact that the others, especially the Sage siblings, were nowhere near as fit as a Mizuho ninja. And then there was how quickly they could move, whether or not Lloyd would be alright or not when they found him, if indeed he was actually down there, and--

"You look deep in thought." Sheena jumped. She hadn't noticed Regal come up behind her. "Are you making a plan about the hole?" Sheena nodded.

"I was thinking about entering and leaving the hole. If we have to make a speedy escape or anything, you know what I mean?" Regal nodded. "Also, the slope. What are we going to do if someone's hurt and Raine can't do anything?"

"Zelos and I both know healing magic. And I think Kratos does as well."

"Uhh, what if you, Raine and Zelos are all hurt, then? I mean, unless he sobers up very quickly, Kratos..." Sheena asked, watching Zelos try and push Genis out of the way in the triumph pose, only to get smacked over the back of the head by Kratos, who also wanted to pose.

"I think that you may be over thinking this just a bit too much, Sheena." Presea replied, walking over. "The chances of Raine, Regal, and Zelos all being incapacitated at the same time are 3..." she shook her head. "I mean, very little, very very little... And as for Kratos, umm..."

"Exactly how much did the guy have to drink anyway?" Sheena asked exasperatedly, putting her hands on her hips.

"I don't know..." Regal replied thoughtfully, stroking his chin. "To be honest, I was totally unaware that was a place to obtain alcohol in Sybak. Well, you learn something new every day, eh? Though he was only out of sight for ten minutes…" Regal hesitated, feeling Sheena's gaze on him. "But I digress. Are we going in the hole?"

"Yes!" Raine shouted. "Yes, yes, yes! We must! Think of what awaits us down there! The discoveries! The mysteries! Oh, the mysteries!" Genis started backing away slowly. "We could be the first group to discover the secrets of this hole! Imagine it: the hole would be completely untouched. We can see it in its natural state! Doesn't that make you excited?!"

"Uh, no it wouldn't..." Kratos interrupted. "It would be messed up because those impostors live down there..." Raine turned around, furious.

"What?! Damn it! They... they could mess up the entire place!" she wailed, pulling her hair. "Oooh, I'll teach them a lesson!" She yelled, swinging her staff over her head several times, before charging into the hole at full speed, her staff held out like some sort of javelin.

"Raine! You don't even know they're there! Slow down!" Zelos called after her. However, she just carried on. Zelos shrugged, picking up Kratos, who was lying on the ground, watching the clouds.

"Umm, does she even remember that we're looking for Lloyd after he got kidnapped?" Sheena asked jokingly, jumping into the hole. Zelos threw Kratos in there shortly after ("Whee!") forcing Sheena to duck.

"Hey, she's on a vendetta against the same guys who kidnapped him. Does it really matter what her reasons are?" Genis asked, hopping next to Sheena. "She just as dangerous, maybe even more so." She could only shrug in agreement.

"Hurry, hurry everyone!" Raine called from out of sight. "We can't give them anymore time to degrade this place!"

"But what about Lloyd?" a low wail from Kratos could be heard.

"I think she may have forgotten that they made this place." Regal sighed, walking past Sheena and further into the hole. "Though I wish I could have her enthusiasm. I have a bad feeling about this place. I have a feeling something's going to go wrong."

"Would that have anything to do with the fact it's a giant hole in the middle of nowhere?" Sheena laughed. Regal nodded glumly, before heading further into the hole, using his arms to keep himself upright as he skidded down the slope. Sheena suddenly realised how un-funny her comment had been, and gulped, getting ready to head further in. Presea interrupted her preparation.

"We are going to find Lloyd down here, aren't we?" Sheena turned around to see Presea crouching on the raised edge of the hole, gazing into the darkness further ahead. She seemed really sad.

"Why? What's wrong Presea?" Sheena asked.

"One of them looked like me. That scary perky one. I kind of feel responsible for what happened to Lloyd..." she sighed. Sheena grabbed her hand and pulled her into the hole.

"There's another who looks like me, in case you forgot, and one that looked like Zelos. Don't let it get to you." Presea nodded, starting to walk past her. "Though there is something bothering me." Presea stopped and turned to face her.

"What?"

"My look-alike, she's called Annie or something right? Well, when I was younger, I loved turning Sheena backwards for use as a nickname. What it makes is Anee, which is also pronounced Annie." She crossed her arms. "It's really been bothering me. Similar name, similar appearance. I'm starting to think there's a connection between us…"

"You have a point." Presea mused. "Hmm, My one was called Ay-Say or something, right?" Sheena nodded in confirmation. "I wonder how it's spelt? It can't be A-Y-S-A-Y, could it?"

"Well, let's try the last letters of your name. Umm, A-E-S-E-R-P spells 'aeserp'…" Sheena mumbled to herself. "A-E-S-E…"

"…Could be pronounced Ay-Say." Presea interrupted. "I think there's a definite connection. And the last four letters of 'Zelos' spell Sole…"

"We're on to something here. Let's go tell the others!" Sheena cheered, grabbing Presea's hand and running further into the hole. As they ran, they noticed a light wind pick up, blowing outwards from deeper in the hole. Despite its measly strength, this wind was surprisingly loud, almost deafeningly so.

"How far do you think they went before waiting for us?" Presea asked loudly, trying to make herself heard over the wind.

"I don't know. You never know with these guys where we'll meet up when split up. Why?"

"Well, we've been running for a while. Surely they stopped for us by now?" Presea pointed out. Sheena skidded to a halt, and Presea bumped into her from being nearly dragged behind. "Do you think something happened to them, or they went a different way, or something?"

"Umm, I think we might be lost, Presea…"

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So yeah, like I said earlier, review! Please?


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